A communicative approach to social capital: Building a theoretical and empirical model of communication and community engagement (Colombia)

This study combines empirical political communication research models with recent insights from the field of psychology, as well as theoretical accounts provided by the Theory of Communicative Action, to expand our understanding of how communication matters for democratic political functioning particularly under conditions of instability. The examination of communication practices in Colombia and how they contribute to or hinder certain forms of civic and political engagement present an interesting case to study the potential for communicative rationality to transcend the use of force and bring about action coordination based on communicatively achieved understanding.; The most significant findings of this research include: (1) establishing the role of emotional dispositions towards others as predictors of surveillance media use (both in traditional and emerging outlets) and of orientation towards reaching understanding in political conversation, that result in higher levels of political involvement that ultimately affect levels of civic and political engagement; (2) expanding the applicability of communication mediation to societies in crisis, with the emergence of similar outcomes from surveillance versus entertainment media uses; (3) clarifying distinctions between media exposure and media attention suggesting that simple exposure to news might contribute to participation potentially by providing mobilization information, but attention is required for different facets of political involvement to improve (i.e. knowledge, interest and efficacy); (4) integrating orientations towards political conversation to models of civic and political participation, at the same time as providing evidence of the democratic benefits of orientations toward reaching understanding and the deleterious effects of strategic orientations for political involvement and ultimately participation; (5) offering an asymmetrical reciprocal causation model according to which communication and political engagement exhibit reciprocal causal relationships, but communication exerts a greater influence on politics than vice versa; and (6) proposing a communicative perspective on social capital based on the interactive effects of social connectedness and communication that increase the potential for consensual collective action.