Interacting effects of political social media use, political discussion and political trust on civic engagement: Extending the differential gains model

2021 ◽  
pp. 174804852199311
Author(s):  
Yan Su ◽  
Xizhu Xiao

The differential gains model has lent credence to the fact that the positive association between news consumption and political engagement differs across people who discuss politics more often and those who do not. This study extends the original differential gains model by incorporating a second moderator, political trust, and replicating in three Asian societies: Japan, Taiwan, and Mainland China. In addition to the main associations, results lent partial support to the original hypothesis in the context of Japan. Moreover, a three-way interaction emerged in China Mainland. That is, among Chinese who have higher levels of political social media use, those who discuss politics more often and distrust political institutions showed higher levels of civic engagement. This study advances the original differential gains model into a moderated moderation model. Beyond the communicative factors, results revealed the importance of political trust in buffering media effects.

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petter Bae Brandtzaeg ◽  
Asbjørn Følstad

This special issue on "Social media use and innovations" of the Journal of Media Innovation provides an engaging view into innovative uses of social media as well as approaches for utilizing social media in innovation.  With three papers included, we cover experiences with an online social network for children (Stephanie Valentine and Tracy Hammond), design by youth for youth in projects on social media for civic engagement (Henry Mainsah, Petter Bae Brandtzaeg, and Asbjørn Følstad), and social platforms for corporate and community innovation (Marika Lüders).


Author(s):  
Saifuddin Ahmed ◽  
Vivian Chen Hsueh-Hua ◽  
Arul Indrasen Chib

Abstract This study examines the relationship between social media use, disease risk perception, social and political trust, and out-group stereotyping and prejudice during a social upheaval. Analyses of primary data collected during the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore found that disease risk perception is positively related to stereotyping and prejudice against Chinese immigrants. Individuals who used social media for news were more likely to stereotype and express prejudice. However, those who engaged in frequent heterogenous discussions, and had more extensive social networks, were less likely to stereotype and express prejudice. Higher social and political trust was also associated with lower stereotyping and prejudice. Finally, moderation effects of network characteristics on the relationship between risk perception, social trust, and prejudice were observed.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Tian Xie ◽  
Meihui Tang ◽  
Robert Jiqi Zhang ◽  
James H. Liu

During the COVID-19 pandemic, does more internet and social media use lead to taking more- or less-effective preventive measures against the disease? A two-wave longitudinal survey with the general population in mainland China in mid-2020 found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, internet and social media use intensity promoted the adoption of nonpharmaceutical and pharmaceutical antipandemic measures. The first wave of data (n = 1014) showed that the more intensively people used the internet/social media, the more they perceived the threat of the pandemic, and took more nonpharmaceutical preventive measures (e.g., wearing masks, maintaining social distance, and washing hands) as a result. The second wave (n = 220) showed firstly the predicted relationship between internet/social media use intensity and the perceived threat of the pandemic and the adoption of nonpharmaceutical preventive measures by cross-lagged analysis; secondly, the predictive effect of internet/social media use on the adoption of pharmacological measures (i.e., willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19) and the mediating role of perceived pandemic threat were verified. The article concludes with a discussion of the role of the internet and social media use in the fight against COVID-19 in specific macrosocial contexts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (S1) ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
Boby John ◽  
John Joseph Kennedy

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 766
Author(s):  
Maria Perifanou ◽  
Katerina Tzafilkou ◽  
Anastasios A. Economides

The literature provides rich evidence on students’ levels of digital skills as well as on their frequency of Internet and social media use. Several studies have examined the relationships between social media use and academic achievement. However, there are not any studies investigating the relationships between social media use and digital skills of higher education students. To fill this research gap, this study examines the links between the frequency of social media use and students’ digital skills. The survey was conducted with 155 university students in Greece. The instrument on six digital skills components was evaluated in terms of reliability and consistency. The research findings reveal a strong positive association between the use of YouTube and students’ digital skills on content evaluation and protection. Age and educational level differences were noted in several digital skills components, whereas age and gender were related to the frequency of Instagram use. The main conclusion is that the generic use of Facebook and Instagram does not affect students’ digital skills. However, combined literature evidence implies that when social media are used for educational purposes, they might influence students’ perceived levels of digital skills. Implications and limitations are discussed in the study.


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