Abstract
This study explores the potential of online social media to serve as a sphere for political discourse and investigates the extent to which everyday uses of online social networking sites can expose citizens to politically diverse viewpoints. In addition, this study asks whether such crosscutting exposure in online social networks will act as a trigger or a muffler for political expression – that is, whether exposure political difference will stimulate or discourage political discussions. With analyses of a sample of online social networking site users in the context of the 2012 presidential election in South Korea, this study explicates the link between crosscutting exposure and citizens’ political expressions in social media. Results reveal that contrary to the predictions in previous literature, exposure to politically incongruent viewpoints in online social networking sites does not seem to undermine users’ expressive behaviors but instead positively contribute to political expression. In addition, this study shows the significant role of citizens’ perceptions of candidate support in their own networks, and illustrates that the dynamics of political expression differ significantly depending on the users’ age.
Highlights
Given that the 2012 presidential election highlighted the generational gap in candidate support and the political climate in Korea, this study explores the way in which crosscutting exposure influenced political expression in different age groups
The effects of crosscutting exposure in social media and its impact on political expression merits further examination, this study sought to be a first step in that direction, revealing a number of valuable insights for future research
The desire for harmony in faceto-face interpersonal interactions has been shown to decrease the likelihood of citizens’ engagement in heterogeneous political discussions (Mutz, 2001). These factors lead to the significance of the current research, which draws attention to the role of social media as an alternative sphere for political expression and exposure to crosscutting viewpoints
Summary
New communication technologies are changing the everyday communicative patterns of citizens, by opening up a variety of ways to access information and to connect with others in their social circles. One of the major academic debates in the current media environment revolves around whether the rise of the new technologies could facilitate political discourse that reaches the normative goals of plurality and diversity embodied in the concept of deliberative democracy (Brundidge, 2010; Habermas, 1989). The debate about whether the Internet can encourage political discourse has entered a new phase with the rapid spread of social media. Social media newsfeeds or timelines are increasingly becoming the window through which the public views the world, for younger generations (Messing & Westwood, 2012)
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