Social Media Skills and Social Media Political Expression: The Mediating Role of Pro-Attitudinal and Cross-Cutting Exposure

Abstract

Individuals’ ability to use social media effectively, efficiently, and appropriately is increasingly important as these platforms become a common source for news and political expression. Differences in social media skills have important implications for politics, potentially generating a democratic divide. The present study examines the extent to which an individual’s perceptions of information navigation and social skills, two dimensions of social media skills, are related to social media political expression through cross-cutting exposure and pro-attitudinal exposure. Survey results show that social media skills are positively related to social media political expression through pro-attitudinal exposure, and social media skills hold a direct negative relationship with social media political expression. Implications of a social media skills divide and its relationship with social media political expression are discussed.