The impact of so-called "new" media on the process of political identification

The influence of new media on political relations, processes and institutions are growing in the contemporary society. A proof of it could be a number of empirical cases of participation of these media in political events of recent years. Political identification in contemporary society is also under the influence of these media. They are giving users an access to tremendous volume of information about political attitudes, views, events and processes. Moreover activity of different political forces could be seen in these media. The article shows the lack of clarity in the issue of how an access to political information influences on the speed of political identification. New media are able to strengthen links inside existing political identities. The article states that new media is an environment where new leaders could appear. Emergence of such leaders could be caused by activity in frameworks of the project in new media. In order to unite significant numbers of users of these media such a leader needs to set an agenda. In that case identity will be problem-subject character. The article state also that users of new media play an important role in in processes dealing with political identification. Sometimes it is done unconsciously by sharing information or opinion about some political event.

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