Democratising and Enlightening? Investigating the Role of Social Media in The Democratisation of the Public Sphere, Political Deliberation and Public Opinion

This thesis contributes to the social media literature by focusing on the role and potential of social media in (i) political participation and access to the public sphere; (ii) political deliberation and viewpoint diversity, and (iii) public opinion. This thesis is a compendium of four stand-alone papers. Through a multi-country, mixed-methods and interdisciplinary approach building upon previous knowledge from communication and political sciences, it provides a broad, yet integrated, assessment of some of the political ramifications of social media communication. The overarching conclusion of this research is that despite early optimism, the democratising potential of social media does not seem to have materialised, at least not to the extent that some early theorists had envisioned.