scholarly journals Whither slacktivism? Political engagement and social media use in the 2013 Czech Parliamentary elections

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Václav Štětka ◽  
Jaromír Mazák
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Political Expression ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Ordinal Logistic Regression Analysis ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines the relationship between online political expression and offline forms of political participation in the context of the 2013 Czech Parliamentary elections. It draws on the rapidly growing but still very much inconclusive empirical evidence concerning the use of new media and social network sites in particular for electoral mobilization and social activism, and their impact on more traditional forms of civic and political engagement. The theoretical framework of the paper is inspired by the competing perspectives on the role of social media for democratic participation and civic engagement, the mobilization vs. normalization thesis, as well as by the popular concepts of clicktivism or slacktivism (Morozov, 2009), denouncing online activism for allegedly not being complemented by offline actions and having little or no impact on real-life political processes. With the intention to empirically contribute to these discussions, this study uses data from a cross-sectional survey on a representative sample of the Czech adult population (N=1,653) which was conducted directly following the 2013 Parliamentary elections. The study was driven by the main research question: Is there a link between online political expression during the election campaign and traditional forms of political participation among Czech Facebook users? Furthermore, the analysis examined the relationship between online political participation and a declared political interest, electoral participation and political news consumption. The results obtained from an ordinal logistic regression analysis confirm the existence of a significant positive relationship between the respondents’ level of campaign engagement on Facebook and their political interest, political information seeking as well as traditional (mainly offline) participation activities, including voting.

Transformations in American Political Participation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deana A. Rohlinger
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Sociological Literature ◽  
The Relationship

The purpose of this chapter is to offer a critical review of the sociological literature on political participation and, in doing so, to underscore the importance of power dynamics to understanding political engagement in the digital age. The author argues that the focus on social movements, the organizations that animate them, and the conditions under which they emerge and decline made it difficult for sociologists to incorporate digital media into their theorizing. A key problem in this regard is that sociologists have not done a good job of accounting for the ability of individuals and small groups to use technologies to advocate for political change. One way for sociologists to rebalance their theoretical and empirical efforts is to think more critically about the relationship between structure and agency and how this might (dis)empower individuals and groups. The author illustrates the utility of this approach by, first, outlining how power shapes whether and how an individual gets politically involved and, then, discussing how power influences the form a group takes as well as its influence in political processes. The chapter concludes with a discussion of directions for future research.

scholarly journals Do platforms favour dissidents? Characterizing political actor types based on social media uses and gratifications

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Chamil Rathnayake ◽  
Jenifer Sunrise Winter
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Uses And Gratifications ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Personality Types ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression Model ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Main Model

BACKGROUND: The rise of social media has resulted in a dramatic change in citizen engagement in political processes. This raises the question of whether affordances of social network sites motivate alternative politics more than more conventional form of political engagement. OBJECTIVE: 1) identify differences in social media uses and gratifications among four political personality types (i.e., potential dissidents, allegiants, subordinates, and the alienated), and 2) examine the extent to which political personality types can be discerned using social media uses and gratifications. METHODS: 313 United States citizens above the age of 18 completed a survey using the revised MAIN model scale to measure social media uses and gratifications. Subjects were categorised into political personality types based on the Gamson Hypothesis and Paige’s conceptualisation of actor types. We developed a multinomial logistic regression model to examine the relationship between predictors (uses and gratifications) and political personality types. RESULTS: Potential allegiants and dissidents are driven by a similar set of social media uses and gratifications as opposed to political subordinates and the alienated. CONCLUSION: Social media can provide more gratifications for potential dissidents and allegiants, ‘favouring’ personality types with high political efficacy.

Hanging together or not? Impacts of social media use and organisational membership on individual and collective political actions

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinzhi Zhang ◽  
Wan-Ying Lin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Actions

Do social media help individuals without organisational memberships to engage more in politics or do they only facilitate political participation for those already involved? We examine how social media use and organisational membership jointly affect participation. Comparative surveys in Hong Kong and Taipei reveal that information sharing and virtual political engagement on social media mobilised users to engage in collective political actions. The influence of social media on individual-based participation is conditional on organisational membership, as reflected by the number of organisations joined. Organisational membership moderates the relationship between social media use and political behaviours differently in Hong Kong and Taipei.

scholarly journals Dissenting public or engaged citizens? Predictors of general and contentious online political expression in China

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 450-466
Author(s):  
Ki Deuk Hyun
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Food Safety ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Political Expression ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Different Types

Online political engagement in China has been explained as both conventional and contentious forms of political participation. Depending on the explanations, potentially contradicting factors are assumed to promote online political engagement. To resolve this contradiction, this research distinguished general and contentious online political expression. The analyses of two datasets showed that general online political expression positively related to variables associated with conventional participation, such as personal resources, political interest, efficacy, and satisfaction with personal and China’s general economic situations. On the other hand, expression regarding contentious food safety issues was mainly explained by factors related to contentious participation such as support for alternative political ideas (i.e. freedom of expression and giving more voice to citizens) and the perception of injustice. In both datasets, political expression was positively associated with social media use for news. The results from the two studies suggest that different factors may be at work in explaining general and contentious political expression. The potential of the two different types of political expression for political change in China is discussed.

“Mind the gap”: to succeed in marketing politics, think of social media innovation

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 806-817
Author(s):  
Patrick Amfo Anim ◽  
Frederick Okyere Asiedu ◽  
Matilda Adams ◽  
George Acheampong ◽  
Ernestina Boakye
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Political Marketing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Young Voters ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This paper aims to explore the relationships between political marketing via social media and young voters’ political participation in Ghana. Additionally, this study examines the mediating role political efficacy plays in enhancing the relationship. Design/methodology/approach With a positivist mindset, and adopting the survey strategy, data gathered from the questionnaire administered from the sampled 320 young voters (18-29 years) in Greater Accra were quantitatively analyzed. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to assess and confirm the proposed scales validity and the relationships of the research model. Findings The study revealed that a political party or candidate’s ability to achieve political participation from Ghanaian young voters’ is dependent on how effective they build customer relationship or gaining visibility through social media. In addition, the study showed that political efficacy mediates the relationship between customer relationship building or gaining visibility through social media and political participation among Ghana young voters. Thus, young voters in Ghana must see themselves to have a say in the affairs of political parties through the political messages they gather from social media platforms to enhance their political participation activities. Practical implications The results of this paper will enable political marketers and politicians not only in Ghana but across the globe, to better understand how social media as a communication tool could be used to positively influence users’ political participation. Originality/value Considering the uniqueness of this study in a Ghanaian context, this paper is the first of its kind to use the social capital theory in examining the mediating role political efficacy plays in enhancing the relationship between political marketing on social media and young voters’ political participation.

Desperate Housewives and Soccer Moms: Examining the relationship between media representations and the lived reality of women in the suburbs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica White
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Media Images ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Original Question ◽  
The Media ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Historical Examination

Has suburbia ever truly met the needs of the populations it claims to serve? Since its creation suburbia has been a centre of conflict between the image created by the media and lived realities. The post war images of femininity in the suburbs were ones of domesticity and a heteronormative family. In essence the “sitcom” family was created and reality was made to look like its television counterpart. Yet in real life, did any family look like that of Leave it to Beaver? Have our ideals of the perfect family living in the perfect house truly changed? If they have changed have they had an effect on policy makers and land developers? A brief historical examination of suburbia, its creation, and media images will be contrasted with the developments and policies we find in today’s suburbia. To partially answer my original question the demographic of women in suburbia, more specifically mothers will be discussed. Are today’s media images of suburbia a better depiction of lived realities or are urban political processes still at play to perpetuate an ideal image?

The Demobilizing Potential of Conflict for Web and Mobile Political Participation

2019 ◽  
pp. 1342-1361
Author(s):  
Francis Dalisay ◽  
Matthew J. Kushin ◽  
Masahiro Yamamoto
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Negative Association ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Political Expression ◽  
Negative Link ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Online Political Participation

In this chapter, we expand the idea that conflict avoidance (CA) inhibits online political participation. We specifically propose that CA has a direct negative link with traditional online political participation and online political expression, and an indirect negative link with these two forms of participation when mediated by political interest and internal political efficacy. We test our propositions through analyzing data from a survey of young adult college students residing in a battleground state in the U.S. Midwest conducted during the weeks prior to the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Our results showed that CA has a direct negative association with both traditional online political participation and online political expression. CA also has a negative relationship with political interest and internal political efficacy, which in turn, are positively linked with traditional online political participation and online political expression. We discussed implications.

scholarly journals Does incidental exposure on social media equalize or reinforce participatory gaps? Evidence from a panel study

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 2463-2482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffael Heiss ◽  
Jörg Matthes
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Incidental Exposure ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Using Data ◽  
High Effort

Existing research indicates that incidental exposure to political information on social media may function as an equalizer, stimulating political engagement among the politically detached. In this article, we challenge this notion and propose that there are good reasons to assume that incidental exposure may reinforce existing gaps. We test the equalizing against the reinforcing hypothesis using data from a two-wave panel study ( N = 559). We find a positive main effect of incidental exposure on low-effort digital participation. However, this effect was not conditional on political interest, as the equalizing assumption would have suggested. More interestingly, we found that the effect of incidental exposure on high-effort digital participation was conditional on political interest. However, against the assumption of equalization, individuals with low levels of political interest were negatively affected by incidental exposure, thus lending support for the reinforcement hypothesis. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 217-236
Author(s):  
Cristian Vaccari ◽  
Augusto Valeriani
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Democratic Life ◽  
Political Apathy ◽  
The Relationship

Social media can contribute to the quality of democratic life by expanding the scope of citizens’ political participation and broadening the pool of participants. However, the relationship between political experiences on social media and political participation is not so strong as to justify unmitigated enthusiasm. Social media cannot and will not “save democracy” from citizens’ political apathy and distrust. While political experiences on social media do not disproportionately stimulate participation among ideologically extremist citizens, nor among those who voted for populist political actors, treating all forms of participation as equally desirable obscures important nuances that are key to evaluating social media’s contribution to democracy. Still, social media can be part of the solution to at least two important democratic ills—citizens’ disconnection from politics and inequalities between those who choose to exercise their voice and those who remain silent.

Incidental news exposure via social media and political participation: Evidence of reciprocal effects

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482096212
Author(s):  
Sangwon Lee ◽  
Michael Xenos
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Causal Model ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Reciprocal Effects ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Causal Direction ◽  
Path Models ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Reverse Path

The aim of this study is to investigate the causal direction of the relationship between incidental news exposure via social media and political participation. Unlike prior studies, which have relied on cross-sectional data to examine this link, we used two panel data sets to better identify causal relationships. Specifically, we evaluate two unidirectional models (i.e. mobilization and reinforcement) and a reciprocal causal model using both cross-lagged and autoregressive path models. The findings reveal a more complex relationship than most previous studies have suggested. The relationship between incidental news exposure via social media and political participation appears to be reciprocal, with incidental news exposure and political participation indirectly influencing each other through social media use for political purposes. Furthermore, while the relationship between incidental news exposure and political participation is reciprocal, the participation-to-incidental news exposure path exerted a stronger effect than the reverse path in both studies.

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