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<p>While small groups leverage disproportionate visibility online, oftentimes resorting to hostile language, the use of social media for political expression by the majority of Norwegian users has been theorised in terms of lurking, inhibition, and self-restraint. Drawing from qualitative in-depth interviews with young adults of different political orientations and ethnic-cultural backgrounds in Oslo, Norway, I take an abductivehermeneutic approach to analyse their rationale for self-censorship. The findings reveal shared frustrations and risks that explain the prevalence of lurking yet point to different coping mechanisms and expression strategies adopted by the respondents. While progressives tend to internalise their reactions by withdrawing and avoiding confrontations, conservatives more often appeal to self-censorship on the presumption of actual censorship. Different styles of media use call into question divergent ideals of democratic theory, setting self-expressive rationality at odds with deliberative norms of citizenship. I argue that this can help explain increasing perceived political polarisation and disconnection tendencies.</p>
</abstract>

While small groups leverage disproportionate visibility online, oftentimes resorting to hostile language, the use of social media for political expression by the majority of Norwegian users has been theorised in terms of lurking, inhibition, and self-restraint. Drawing from qualitative in-depth interviews with young adults of different political orientations and ethnic-cultural backgrounds in Oslo, Norway, I take an abductivehermeneutic approach to analyse their rationale for self-censorship. The findings reveal shared frustrations and risks that explain the prevalence of lurking yet point to different coping mechanisms and expression strategies adopted by the respondents. While progressives tend to internalise their reactions by withdrawing and avoiding confrontations, conservatives more often appeal to self-censorship on the presumption of actual censorship. Different styles of media use call into question divergent ideals of democratic theory, setting self-expressive rationality at odds with deliberative norms of citizenship. I argue that this can help explain increasing perceived political polarisation and disconnection tendencies.

Between civic virtue and vice: Self-censorship of political views on social media among Norwegian young adults

Department of Journalism and Media Studies

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

While small groups leverage disproportionate visibility online, oftentimes resorting to hostile language, the use of social media for political expression by...

Pseudonym	Age	Gender	Ethnic background	Political interest	Political leanings
Mark	25	m	Majority	Low	Centre-left
Jim	24	m	Majority	High	Green
Edvard	19	m	Minority	High	Right
Elen	20	f	Minority	Low	Left
Rebecca	19	f	Minority	High	Left
Lian	19	f	Minority	Low	Left
Inju	25	m	Minority	High	Green
Nora	18	f	Majority	High	Left
Jakob	25	m	Minority	High	Right
William	23	m	Minority	High	Left
Anders	18	m	Majority	High	Right
Kiran	22	f	Minority	Low	Neutral
Frida	25	f	Minority	High	Left
Sofia	23	f	Majority	Moderate	Centre-left
Sara	23	f	Majority	High	Left
Isaak	23	m	Majority	Moderate	Centre-left

Between civic virtue and vice: Self-censorship of political views on social media among Norwegian young adults

Published Online: Mar 12, 2024

Page range: 152 - 172

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2024-0011

Keywords
self-censorship, social media, political expression, civic virtues, digital public sphere

© 2024 Lukas Mozdeika et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Overview of the sample

Between civic virtue and vice: Self-censorship of political views on social media among Norwegian young adults

Published Online: Mar 12, 2024

Page range: 152 - 172

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2024-0011

Keywordsself-censorship, social media, political expression, civic virtues, digital public sphere

© 2024 Lukas Mozdeika et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Overview of the sample

Keywords
self-censorship, social media, political expression, civic virtues, digital public sphere