Abstract
This edited collection presents the results of a research project conducted by researchers affiliated with the Centre for the Analysis and Interdisciplinary Research of the Media at the French Press Institute. The 3-year project examined the social dynamics of digital communication practices across varied domains of political communication, focusing on both the practices of information circulation and the impact of new technologies on public culture. Apart from contributing to the growing body of empirical research tracing the differences in news consumption between traditional and digital media, the results also shed light on processes of information transmission, reception and use, as well as interpersonal communication in a digital context. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which this communicative dynamics is shaped by factors such as age, social class, gender and educational trajectory, providing a useful complement to the often excessively media-centred treatments of the same developments. Of particular relevance here are the results that point to the reproduction of existing divisions and inequalities, and challenge the notion of the inherent democratic and participatory potential of digital technologies. While online communication may in some respects broaden access to political or publicly relevant information, the results presented here indicate that the most engaged, exhaustive and selective users of digital media come from higher social classes who continue to access information through traditional media and are highly sensitive to issues of trust and legitimacy of news. In contrast, users from less privileged social backgrounds use online sources in a less selective and more superficial manner, exhibit a preference for television and less often raise concerns about the reliability of information online (pp. 31–54). Also welcome is the primary reliance on qualitative methods, including focus groups, interviews and ethnographic observation, which taken together produce valuable insight into the vernacular engagements with digital media. The last chapter of the collection usefully contextualizes these results drawing on existing quantitative data, including information on the growth of tablets, portable computers and touchscreens over time; the social diffusion of the Internet; and survey data on access to news and usage of key websites. In terms of coherence and cross-fertilization of different types of data, it would have been better if quantitative data had been brought into the picture earlier on in the book, but this is a relatively minor omission in an otherwise very informative and thought-provoking collection which deserves to be read widely.