Social media use and voting intention in the 2012 Quebec election campaign

Abstract

The study of the relationship between online social media use and offline political action has mostly limited itself to an examination of political participation (or civic engagement) patterns. Does social media use also relate to the formation of citizens’ voting preferences during an election campaign? We examine this question using individual-level public opinion survey data collected during the 2012 provincial election campaign in Quebec. We find that the relationship between voting intention and social media use is significant, that it is stronger than that found for traditional (or offline) media use, and that it is stronger in the case of voting intention in favor of non-mainstream political parties.