Social Media Use and Political Mobilization

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
Justin W Holmes ◽  
Ramona S McNeal
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Media ◽  
Individual Decisions

This article describes how political participation is a central component of democracy. Past research has found that a variety of factors drive individual decisions about participation, including the media that citizens use to gain political information. Social media offers the possibility of engaging citizens in a new way and potentially increasing various forms of participation. In this article, the role that social media use has in fostering a variety for forms of political participation is examined. This article finds that social media use can be a driver of participation, but that this impact is largely contingent on the political predispositions of the user.

Depolarization through social media use: Evidence from dual identifiers in Hong Kong

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1339-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuro Kobayashi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Dual Identities ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Despite the concern that partisan selectivity in the political use of social media leads to mass polarization, the empirical evidence is mixed at best. Given the possibility that these inconclusive findings are attributable to moderators in the process that have not been adequately studied, this article elaborates the roles played by different forms of social identities. By analyzing three datasets collected in Hong Kong, where Chinese and Hong Kongese identities are constructed in a nonmutually exclusive way, this study demonstrates that (1) partisan selectivity in media use is reliably detected among those with single Hong Kongese identity, but not among those with dual identities of Hong Kongese and Chinese, (2) the political use of social media polarizes the attitudes and affects of single identifiers, whereas it has depolarizing effects on dual identifiers, and (3) these contrasting effects on polarization between single and dual identifiers have downstream consequences for political participation.

scholarly journals Social Media, Civic Engagement and Political Participation

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (S1) ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
Boby John ◽  
John Joseph Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Media Use ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Effective Use

Civic engagement has traditionally been considered a much desired trait of good citizenship. Many researches in the past few decades have treated civic engagement level as one of the variables to measure political participation. Since active and constructive political participation of the citizenry is at the very heart of democracy, inculcating passion towards civic engagement positively helps to augment the political participation level of people. This paper makes a measurement the social media use level of college students in Kerala, categorizing the frequency of use as low, medium and high. The civic engagement level of these same students is then measured to examine the relationship between social media use and civic engagement level of students. The study can contribute insights to social media managers, academicians and policy makers towards effective use of social media for civic engagement enhancement resulting in greater political participation. The study also examines the truth of the argument that online activists are not as much passionate about civic issues when offline. A reality check on this can throw open interesting results on the political behaviour of present day youngsters.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study on Social Media Use and Public Participation in Korea and the United States: Does Social Media Matter?

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-230
Author(s):  
Kim Eun Yi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Interaction Effect ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Impact

This study examines how the use of different types of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, affects public participation, drawing on the theory of motivation, which addresses the effect of internal and external political efficacy as well as the perceived political importance of social media. The study also investigates the interaction effect between social media use and perceived the political importance of social media on public participation. Employing a comparative perspective on an issue that has not been well studied, the study further seeks to discover potential variations in the impacts of different social media on public participation in the United States and Korea, both of which held presidential elections at the end of 2012. This study conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses using data collected from college students in the United States and Korea. It shows the positive impact of social media use and its interaction effect with the perceived political importance of social media on the offline and online public participation of youth. The political motivational factor is found to be critical to driving public participation. This study also shows that the impact of Facebook use is more influential than Twitter use on public participation in the United States, whereas the opposite pattern is observed in Korea.

scholarly journals The social media political participation model: A goal systems theory perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Knoll ◽  
Jörg Matthes ◽  
Raffael Heiss
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Social ◽  
Goal Systems ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Although studies suggest that the use of social media can promote political participation (PP), there is a lack of theorizing about the psychological processes underlying this relationship. This article attempts to fill this gap by suggesting a social media political participation model. Taking a goal systemic perspective, the model specifies a set of interrelated processes that need to be realized so that social media use affects PP. Furthermore, key contingent conditions are outlined and insights into fostering PP are offered. The article explains ways of testing the model with surveys and experiments. Implications for future research are discussed.

Media Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Pathogenic or salutogenic? (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjolaine Rivest-Beauregard ◽  
Justine Fortin ◽  
Connie Guo ◽  
Sabrina Cipolletta ◽  
Ram Sapkota ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Related Information ◽  
The Media ◽  
Support Seeking ◽  
Peritraumatic Distress

BACKGROUND While exposure to COVID-related stressors, level of peritraumatic distress, and frequency of media use for seeking COVID-related information can increase the risk for trauma- and stressor-related (TSR) symptoms during the pandemic, frequency of social media use for support and connection may buffer these effects. OBJECTIVE We examined the associations between COVID-related stressors and frequency of media use for information-seeking on TSR symptoms, with a focus on the indirect effects of social media use for support-seeking and peritraumatic distress. METHODS A path model was tested in an international sample of 5 913 adults who completed an online survey. RESULTS COVID-related stressors (β = .25, p <.05) and information-seeking through media (β = .24, p <.05) were significantly associated with TSR symptoms in bivariate comparisons. Levels of peritraumatic distress and frequency of social media use for support were significant intermediary variables (respectively, β=0.71, p<.05; β=.02, p<.05). CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that exposure to COVID-related stressors and seeking COVID-related information through the media are associated with higher levels of peritraumatic distress and, in turn, higher levels of TSR symptoms. Although exposure to the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic may be unavoidable, the frequency consuming COVID-related information through the media should be approached with caution. CLINICALTRIAL NA

‘Liked’, ‘Shared’, Re-tweeted: The Referendum Campaign on Social Media

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margot Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Before And After

This chapter examines the independence referendum debate on Facebook and Twitter before and after polling day, noting the multi-modal nature of communication on social media through the use of visual forms such as photographs and video clips. It analyzes the Yes for Scotland and Better Together Facebook and Twitter accounts and notes the participative nature of social media in the political context, reaching many who may not normally be receptive to political discussion. The chapter discusses specific web and social media presences such as the highly visible Wings over Scotland, and notes demographic tendencies among social media users, also considering the fashion in which they respond to each other online critically about traditional media political coverage. The discussion additionally looks at how social media use encourages continued campaigning beyond the phase of electoral results.

Social Media Use Among Olympians and Sport Journalists in Hungary

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-199
Author(s):  
Agnes Kovacs ◽  
Tamas Doczi ◽  
Dunja Antunovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Hungarian Case ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

The Olympic Games are among the most followed events in the world, so athletes who participate there are exceptionally interesting for the media. This research investigated Olympians’ social media use, sport journalists’ attitudes about Olympians’ social media use, and the role of social media in the relationship between Olympians and sport journalists in Hungary. The findings suggest that most Hungarian Olympians do not think that being on social media is an exceptionally key issue in their life, and a significant portion of them do not have public social media pages. However, sport journalists would like to see more information about athletes on social media platforms. The Hungarian case offers not only a general understanding of the athlete–journalist relationship, and the role of social media in it, but also insight into the specific features of the phenomenon in a state-supported, hybrid sport economy.

scholarly journals 140 Characters of Intoxication: Exploring the Prevalence of Alcohol-Related Tweets and Predicting Their Virality

SAGE Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401880313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleem Alhabash ◽  
Courtland VanDam ◽  
Pang-Ning Tan ◽  
Sandi W. Smith ◽  
Gregory Viken ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Past Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Excessive Drinking ◽  
User Characteristics ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon

Past research has suggested an associative relationship between social media use and alcohol consumption, especially among the younger generations. The current study takes a generalizable approach to examining the prevalence of posting about alcohol on a popular social media platform, Twitter, as well as examining the predictors of a tweet’s virality. We content-analyzed more than 47.5 million tweets that were posted in March 2015 to explore the prevalence of alcohol-related references, and how alcohol-related references, tweet features (e.g., inclusion of hashtags, pictures, etc.), and user characteristics (e.g., number of followers) contribute to the tweet’s virality. Our findings showed that during March 2015, about two of every 100 tweets in the United States were alcohol-related; whereas the majority of those referenced intoxication. In addition to tweet features and user characteristics, the prevalence of alcohol-related references in a tweet positively predicted the number of likes it received, yet negatively predicted the number of retweets. Given prior evidence supporting the association between social media use and alcohol consumption, the prevalence of alcohol references in tweets and how that contributes to their virality offers insights into the widespread phenomenon of glorifying alcohol use and excessive drinking via social media, pointing to potential negative health consequences.

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