A Stratified and Segmented Citizenry? Identification of Political Milieus and Conditions for their Communicative Integration

• In Event: Understanding Information Repertoires and News Consumption

Abstract

Integration through public communication is challenged by the parallel tendencies toward the stratification and segmentation of the citizenry. The milieu concept takes up this notion: According to this meso-level approach, basic political orientations and political efficacy are aligned with specific information repertoires and modes of communication. Aggregations of individual data display group-specific patterns of heterogeneous political communication practices. First, this paper aims to characterize milieus within the German citizenry. Based on a representative online survey (n=1.488) and a hierarchical cluster analysis, we identified 12 distinct milieus. Second, we analyze the status of two citizen-level conditions of political integration. These include overlapping information repertoires and milieu-specific issue agendas. Overall, we argue for using social groups’ lifeworld-specific contexts to explain patterns of political and communicative behavior. Our typology serves as the basis for future projects on lifeworld-shaped political media use, the processing of media content, and its effects.

Authors

• Raphael Koesters, Heinrich Heine U Duesseldorf

• Olaf Jandura, LMU Munich