scholarly journals College Students and Online Political Expression During the 2016 Election

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Moffett ◽  
Laurie L. Rice

While college students traditionally exhibit low levels of political participation and interest in politics, they are more likely to engage in some forms of political expression than their elders. Their greater familiarity with online forms of political expression and engagement potentially lowers their barriers for political involvement. In turn, this potentially draws more young adults into the political process. The authors compare the precursors of expressive forms of online political engagement to those of talking to someone off-line and trying to persuade them to vote for or against a candidate or party among college students. They find that both activities are positively connected with politically oriented activity on social media as well as the frequency with which one reads blogs. They also discover that the mechanisms that explain online political expression are both similar to and different from those that explain off-line attempts at persuasion in several key ways.

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482199999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinfeng Zhu ◽  
Marko M Skoric

This study examines the political implications of social media through the lens of digital disconnectivity. Specifically, it focuses on politically motivated unfriending and examines its influence on individuals’ political engagement, namely political expression and information consumption on social media. Furthermore, considering the importance of minority–majority relations for understanding disconnection phenomena, we investigate whether the impact of unfriending is more pronounced among opinion minorities than majorities. Using a two-wave panel survey conducted in the post-Umbrella Movement Hong Kong, we find that politically motivated unfriending predicts an increased level of political expression, but that it is only significant among people who perceive themselves as holding minority opinions. At the same time, we find no relationship between unfriending and information consumption on social media. Based on the findings, we discuss the implications of unfriending for building digital “safe spaces” and its distinct role in promoting political engagement in times of political conflicts.


Author(s):  
Philip Habel ◽  
Yannis Theocharis

In the last decade, big data, and social media in particular, have seen increased popularity among citizens, organizations, politicians, and other elites—which in turn has created new and promising avenues for scholars studying long-standing questions of communication flows and influence. Studies of social media play a prominent role in our evolving understanding of the supply and demand sides of the political process, including the novel strategies adopted by elites to persuade and mobilize publics, as well as the ways in which citizens react, interact with elites and others, and utilize platforms to persuade audiences. While recognizing some challenges, this chapter speaks to the myriad of opportunities that social media data afford for evaluating questions of mobilization and persuasion, ultimately bringing us closer to a more complete understanding Lasswell’s (1948) famous maxim: “who, says what, in which channel, to whom, [and] with what effect.”


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 2463-2482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffael Heiss ◽  
Jörg Matthes

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 95-99
Author(s):  
Бударина ◽  
Kseniya Budarina

The article examines the media´s ability to influence the process of forming political and civic culture of Russian youth. The author revealed the essence of the institute of the media and identified the main functional characteristics of the subject of the political process. The transformation of political values of the Russian youth is substantiated, as well as the instability of its political views in terms of mediatization and development of social media is considered. The priority of media activities is specified that affects the formation of political knowledge and attitudes of young people.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1476-1493
Author(s):  
Stephane Bignoux

The aim of this chapter is to analyse young voter engagement in modern Western democracies. Why young voters? Young voters are disengaged from the political process. In order to complete the analysis, the author adapts an engagement model from social media marketing. The adapted model consists of three parts: consumption, contribution, and (co) creation of brand related materials. The author hypothesises that each aspect of the model is related to the other and that all three aspects of the model are positively related to loyalty to the political party brand. The aim of this conceptual adaptation is to investigate a new way to re-engage young voters with the political party brand, thereby strengthening one pillar of modern democracy.


The Forum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-170
Author(s):  
David C.W. Parker

Abstract Students of American politics are indebted to Richard Fenno’s path-breaking work, Home Style, published four decades ago. But, given the book’s widespread acclaim, few have taken Fenno’s prescription to go back home with members of Congress to heart. In this essay, I echo Fenno’s call for scholars to become participant-observers of the political process while offering the modern “soaker and poker” a guide to the pitfalls and opportunities of pursuing such a research project. I respond to Fenno’s methodological treatise, written as the appendix to Home Style, focusing in particular on gaining access and how to remain publicly engaged while observing a competitive Senate campaign. I discuss how changes in American political culture create additional wrinkles for participant observation that must be considered, especially if scholars chose to remain engaged in public outreach. I conclude by addressing the need to consider carefully the ethics of engaging the political world we study, particularly in the light of the Stanford-Dartmouth experiment scandal rocking Montana in the weeks preceding the state’s 2014 judicial elections. We may not all do participant observation, but we should follow Fenno when considering the implications of interfering in the political world as we study it.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 545-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Nyblade ◽  
Angela O’Mahony ◽  
Aim Sinpeng

Traditional techniques used to study political engagement—interviews, ethnographic research, surveys—rely on collection of data at a single or a few points in time and/or from a small sample of political actors. They lead to a tendency in the literature to focus on “snapshots” of political engagement (as in the analysis of a single survey) or draw from a very limited set of sources (as in most small group ethnographic work and interviewing). Studying political engagement through analysis of social media data allows scholars to better understand the political engagement of millions of people by examining individuals’ views on politics in their own voices. While social media analysis has important limitations, it provides the opportunity to see detailed “video” of political engagement over time that provides an important complement to traditional methods. We illustrate this point by drawing on social media data analysis of the protests and election in Thailand from October 2013 through February 2014.


2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 841-861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blayne Haggart

Abstract.Despite the growing importance of social media, their political effectiveness remains understudied. Drawing on and updating resource mobilization theory and political process theory, this article considers how social media make “political engagement more probable” and determine the success of online social movements. It does so by examining the mainstreaming of the Canadian “user rights” copyright movement, focusing on the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook page, created in December 2007. This decentralized, grassroots, social media-focused action—the first successful campaign of its kind in Canada and one of the first in the world—changed the terms of the Canadian copyright debate and legitimized Canadian user rights. As this case demonstrates, social media have changed the type and quantity of resources needed to create and sustain social movements, creating openings for new groups and interests. Their success, however, remains dependent on the political context within which they operate.Résumé.Malgré l'importance croissante des médias sociaux, leur efficacité politique est encore peu étudiée. En s'appuyant sur et en mettant á jour la théorie de la mobilisation des ressources et la théorie du processus politique, cet article examine comment les médias sociaux rendent « l'engagement politique plus probable » (Jensen et al., 2012 : 16) et détermine la réussite des mouvements sociaux en ligne. Il le fait en examinant l'intégration du mouvement canadien de « droits d'utilisateur » dans le débat sur les droits d'auteur et en se concentrant sur la page FacebookFair Copyright for Canada, créée en décembre 2007. Cet action décentralisée populaire, axée sur les médias sociaux—la première campagne réussie de son genre au Canada et l'une des premières du monde—a changé les termes du débat sur les droits d'auteur canadiens et a légitimé les droits d'utilisateur canadiens. Cette affaire montre que les médias sociaux ont changé le type et la quantité des ressources nécessaires pour créer et maintenir les mouvements sociaux, et qu'ils ont crée, par la suite, des ouvertures pour des nouveaux groupes et intérêts. Leur succès reste cependant dépendant du contexte politique dans lequel elles opèrent.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 94-102
Author(s):  
D E Antonov

The article makes an attempt at a theoretical analysis of the structure of the national information space of Russia. The author describes the impact of the transformation of the structure of the information space on the election process on examples of elections to the State Duma and municipal elections in Moscow, using the methodology of studying system dynamics. According to the results of the study, it is concluded that in the context of the political process mediatization, social media, as channels and tools of information and communication exchange within the information space, will increasingly influence the electoral process. Keywords: information space, mediatization, elections, election process, social media.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (S1) ◽  
pp. 68-71
Author(s):  
V. Shilpa ◽  
P. K. Sreekala

Social Networking Sites (SNS) which is a popular mode of communication in present era is one of the well flourished tools of web 2.0 technology. It offers a varied spectrum of resources and services to the user community like messaging, blogging, sharing pictures, videos, events, interests with people in their network anywhere in the globe. It has a phenomenal influence in the political, economic, and educational domains of our social life. It has bought an evident makeover in the attitude, personality and academic performance of students who are the most ardent users of Social media. The main objective of this study is to examine the various aspects of usage of SNS like purpose and frequency, impact on academics, satisfaction level etc. Among engineering college students in the city of Kozhikode, Kerala. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from a representative sample. The study unveils that majority of students uses SNS as an interactive platform for friendly communication and academic usage is comparatively less. Awareness need to be raised for the intelligent usage of social media by educating students about the applications, benefits, and risks related with social networking sites.


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