Discursive Equality and Everyday Talk Online: The Impact of “Superparticipants” |
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Authors: | Todd Graham Scott Wright |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Journalism and Media Studies, University of Groningen, , Groningen, Netherlands;2. Department of Media and Communication, New Walk, Bankfield House, , University of Leicester, Leicester, UK |
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Abstract: | Empirical studies of online debate almost universally observe a “dominant” minority of posters. Informed by theories of deliberative democracy, these are typically framed negatively—yet research into their impact on debate is scant. To address this, a typology of what we call super‐participation (super‐posters, agenda‐setters and facilitators) is developed and applied to the http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ forum. Focusing on the first of these, we found 2,052 superposters (0.4%) contributing 47% of 25m+ posts. While superposters were quantitatively dominant, qualitative content analysis of the discursive practices of 25 superposters (n=40,044) found that most did not attempt to stop other users from posting (curbing) or attack them (flaming). In fact, in contradiction to the received wisdom, super‐posters discursively performed a range of positive roles. |
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Keywords: | deliberation political talk public sphere virtual community |
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