In light of the increased utilization of information technologies, such as social media and the Internet of Things, this book investigates how this digital transformation process creates new challenges and opportunities for political participation, political election campaigns and political regulation of the Internet. Within the context of Western democracies and China, the contributors analyze these challenges and opportunities from three perspectives: the regulatory state, the political use of social media, and through the lens of the public sphere.

The first part of the book discusses key challenges for Internet regulation, such as data protection and censorship, while the second addresses the use of social media in political communication and political elections. In turn, the third and last part highlights various opportunities offered by digital media for online civic engagement and protest in the public sphere. Drawing on different academic fields, including political science, communication science, and journalism studies, the contributors raise a number of innovative research questions and provide fascinating theoretical and empirical insights into the topic of digital transformation.

Dr Julia Schwanholz is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Georg-August University, Goettingen. She completed her PhD on Parliamentary Powers within the financial market- and economic crisis in comparative perspective in 2014. Her research focus includes political systems, parliaments, digital transformation, and social media. julia.schwanholz@sowi.uni-goettingen.de

Todd Graham is a University Academic Fellow in Media and Communication at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds. His main research interests are the use of new media in representative democracies, the intersections between popular culture and formal politics, online election campaigns, online deliberation and political talk, and online civic engagement. T.graham@leeds.ac.uk

Peter-Tobias Stoll holds a chair for public land and international law at the Faculty of Law of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and is one of the directors of the Institute for International Law and European Law.

Digital transformation: New opportunities and challenges for democracy?.- Internet Censorship in Liberal Democracies - Learning from Autocracies?.- The Emergence and Analysis of European Data Protection Regulation.- Internet Policy and German Copyright Regulation. A Subsystem Perspective to Assess Changes in Interest Group Dynamics and Policy-making.- Parliaments 2.0? Digital Media Use by National Parliaments in the EU.- Much ado about nothing? The use of social media in the new Digital Agenda Committee of the German Bundestag.- Social Media Logic and its Impact on Political Communication during Election Times.- The Personal in the Political on Twitter: Towards a Typology of Politicians Personalized Tweeting Behaviours.- Social Media Sourcing Practices: How Dutch Newspapers Use Tweets in Political News Coverage.- New Rituals for Public Connection. Audiences everyday Experiences of Digital Journalism, Civic Engagement and Social Life.- Social Media as Civic Space for Media Criticism and Journalism Hate.- Lurkers and the Fantasy of Persuasion in an Online Cultural Public Sphere.- Environmental Talk in the Chinese Green Public Sphere: A Comparative Analysis of Daily Green-Speak Across Three Chinese Online Forums.- Afterword: Clinton, Trump and Artificial Intelligence.