LOOPHOLE: EXPECTATIONS OF FORMING DIGITAL PUBLIC OPINION AND MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

Abstract

Society is a living organism and its dynamics highly dependent upon other variables such as culture, economy, technology, etc. New developments in any of them, also change our everyday lives, expectations, attitudes, and behaviors. Nowadays, the changes in society tend to be somewhat very quick as the new digital circumstances require abrupt decisions, instantaneous likes, or dislikes emitted to shape the so-called ‘digital public opinion’. It’s much easier to create a new public agenda, to learn about a subject, to gather, interpret, present, or hide opinions in this new digital platform. As citizens of digital culture, all participants are expected to be aware of the new dimensions of digital citizenship with shared responsibility. Societies seem to be improving digital aspects to form a public opinion, specifically within the last two decades. This paper aims to explore the new concept of digital citizenship and recent applications of digital public opinion whereas it exemplifies how the data is drawn from traditional public sources and how they are linked to the digital world to shape digital public opinion quickly. The reactions and counter-reactions to digital public opinion are much more visible, measurable, and valuable since it causes rapid and radical changes in society. The paper concentrates on the refugee issues in general and specifically the fire in Moria affecting more than 20000 people, including around 7000 children. How these kids were mobilized and how the decision made through digital citizenship is questioned. The paper also has some sentiment analysis correlates the results with actual events such as 5000 thousand people marching in Germany.

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