‘Who, if not me?’ How political self-categorizations shape the meaning of political self-expression on social media as a citizenship norm

ABSTRACT

With political self-expression emerging as a prominent practice of political participation on social media platforms, scholars have hypothesized that this practice may have evolved into a norm and component of ‘good citizenship.’ Empirical findings, however, are inconclusive, as some young people express their politics out of a sense of civic duty, while others view this engagement as a waste of time. Based on the idea that how we define ourselves impacts the normative meanings that we attach to things in the social world, the study explores the role of social identities in people’s evaluations of expressive engagement. Empirically, the study is based on qualitative interview data with social media users in Serbia (n = 18). The findings show that engaging in political self-expression does not appear to be a citizenship norm but a personal norm in individuals with pronounced political self-concepts who perceive that their core self-category is at stake in the public discourse. Moreover, people employ social categorizations, such as ideology, partisanship, and social class, to evaluate the content and form of political self-expression as good or bad. Aside from issues of political self-expression, the study challenges the idea that individual understandings of what it means to be a good citizen are universal and static and that people’s subjective positionality in social contexts matters.

KEYWORDS:

• Political expression
• citizenship norms
• good citizenship
• youth participation
• social identity
• social media

Acknowledgments

The author wants to thank Jakob Ohme, Daniel S. Lane, and the research group Weizenbaum Panel at the Weizenbaum Institute for their unyielding support and patient critique throughout the countless drafts of this article. To the reviewers, a tip of the hat for your attention to detail and constructive criticism, which truly helped me improve the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Grant Number 16DII114.

Notes on contributors

Emilija Gagrčin

Emilija Gagrčin (MA, Freie Universität Berlin) is a research associate and lecturer at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at the University of Mannheim. She is also affiliated with the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. Her research interests include social and normative aspects of political communication in digital environments, and civic competencies necessary for a democratic coexistence in networked societies.