Democracy in the Digital Era: Challenges and Potential Solutions

This final presentation from the side of the critical democratic theory of the project serves as the final synthesis of the theoretical, empirical, and solution-oriented results of the SoMe4Dem project. It introduces the final thesis and diagnosis of the democracy crisis: the structural change of the public sphere caused by social media, and the central puzzle: social media can simultaneously erode and expand democracy.

The presentation emphasises the approach introduced in Deliverables 1.1 and 1.2, namely that effects of social media are not sufficient incorporated into approaches of democracy theory, posing the risk of transferring uncovered "meanings and expectations" onto new phenomena. To avoid these genetic fallacies, we will once again use our already introduced P(articipation)-P(olaritaion)-T(rust) triad as a systematic concept: Through this framework, we want to understand and describe the relationship between social media and democracy: Conceptual re-articulation of the three dimensions as interdependent, dynamic concepts. In this final step, our focus is on using these three elements, and thereby boosting Digital Competence and Lateral Reading Interventions. Finally, on a conceptual level, we are striving to reform new forms of Digital Citizenship and criticism of the established standards of deliberative democracy.