A Politician’s Identity in Social Media. Reflections on Profilicity for Political Theory Cover Image

Tożsamość polityka w mediach społecznościowych. Teoriopolityczna refleksja na temat profilowości (profilicity)
A Politician’s Identity in Social Media. Reflections on Profilicity for Political Theory

Author(s): Piotr Walewicz
Subject(s): Politics, Media studies, Political Theory, Politics and communication
Published by: Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Studiów Międzynarodowych UW
Keywords: profilicity; political theory; social media; identity; second order observation

Summary/Abstract: The article’s main goal is to introduce the term ‘profilicity’, authored by the philosophers Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, into Polish political science discourse. Profilicity is the most recent, common in late modernity, paradigm of identity, functioning on the basis of the domination of second-order observation as the main mechanism of knowing oneself and others. It is displacing sincerity and authenticity as the paradigms of the previous eras, and its dominant role is facilitated by the development of technology, including social media. Profilicity can also explain the mechanism of creating the identity of a political subject, including the contemporary, ‘professional’ politician and thus it is proposed that it can be used as an analytical category in political science, as well as other social sciences. The article contains attempts to view profilicity and the way it is described by its authors through the lens of political science, as well as tries to present a few ways in which it can supplement existing analyzes of the relationship between politics and social media.

  • Issue Year: 75/2025
  • Issue No: 75
  • Page Range: 142-158
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Polish
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