Can blogs function as rhetorical publics in Asian democracies? An analysis using the case of Singapore

•764 blog posts posted during the 2011 Singapore General Election were analyzed.•Blogs function as weak publics to surface otherwise excluded discourse.•In developing norms as rhetorical publics, they facilitate discursive conversations.•Through such exchanges, community norms are established amongst bloggers.

Social media platforms such as blogs have been said to improve and expand the potential of the Internet in enabling open access to political discourse. Yet several factors may undermine such potential, even in a place like Singapore, where Internet penetration and usage of social media are high. Participation remains fragmented, with certain groups more active than others, raising questions on the viability of the Internet as a public sphere. The context and conditions under which online publics function provide important basis for understanding the use of social media, yet this has often been overlooked. We examine the use of blogs in Singapore as sites for discursive exchanges, civic engagement, and community construction, and discuss the sustainability of blogs as multiple publics in a functioning Asian democracy.