Social Media Use and Political Polarization: Political Engagement as a Mediator

Muzammil Saeed,Muhammad Awais,Farahat Ali,Kinza Amjad

doi:10.32861/jssr.68.804.810

Abstract

Social media, in the new millennium, has become a very effective tool of communication, information, and propagation regarding all social, religious, and political discourses that further lead towards ideological divisions. In the contemporary democratic world, the role of social media for political opinion building is obvious which is done by opinion leaders through political information and debates. The purpose of this study is to explore the social media use and political polarization among social media users. The survey research method was used to examine social media use for political engagement and political polarization. Private university students were selected as participants (n=350). The result was found positive which means that social media use is responsible for political polarization. Moreover, social media use is also a significant predictor of political engagement. In addition to this, the results show that political engagement is a mediator between the relationship between social media use and political polarization. The practical implications of the study have been discussed.

Highlights

Social media use which is reaching its peak among adults of the developed world for participation in digital political spheres (Correa et al, 2010) has become the part and parcel of the life of urban citizens of developing world for political engagement (Poushter et al, 2018), and this new political behavior has accelerated the process of political communication engaging participants in commenting and sharing of political content (Cherubini and Nielsen, 2016)
The results demonstrated that the political engagement of individuals through social media is completely mediating the relationship between social media use and political party-based polarization, leadership-based polarization, and issue-based polarization
Social media is serving as the platform for the dissemination of political information

Summary

Introduction

Social media use which is reaching its peak among adults of the developed world for participation in digital political spheres (Correa et al, 2010) has become the part and parcel of the life of urban citizens of developing world for political engagement (Poushter et al, 2018), and this new political behavior has accelerated the process of political communication engaging participants in commenting and sharing of political content (Cherubini and Nielsen, 2016). In the 2018 elections of Pakistan, a tremendous surge was found in the use of social media due to its polyvocality; all leading political parties, renowned and active candidates, political workers, and even the supporters exploited this ubiquitous source of communication, Facebook and Twitter, to achieve their goals. They propagated the agendas and manifesto of their parties and lead campaigns against the opponents by criticizing their political and personal offenses (Jarral, 2018). This study has attempted to explain the relationship between social media use and political polarization by examining adults’ political engagement on Facebook and Twitter

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Discussion

Conclusion