Do We Need to Rethink EU Politics in the Social Media Era? : An Introduction to the Volume

As the European Union has expanded its power, it is also subject to more contestation and politicisation, and thereby struggling for more legitimacy. The mass media are traditionally key channels for opinion formation and processes of democratic legitimacy. We should now also look at social media platforms as a communication space in which politically relevant discourses are constructed and find potential legitimation. We thus analyse how social media, by favouring processes of citizen dis-intermediation, enhance active citizen empowerment and exertion of counter-power in the EU politics’ digital public spheres. At the same time, we argue that social media can contribute to affirm the idea of public Europeanism, or the notion of being part of a loose but common European demos.