Media Political Participation Research Articles

Online Political Participation of Refugees in Germany: Analysis of a Survey in Bavaria

New media are an important resource for the political participation of marginalized groups. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about the factors that influence whether this opportunity is used. Influencing factors emerge from both the Civic Voluntarism Model and previous research on migrants’ political activity. Using data collected in 2019/2020 from 486 refugees living in Bavaria, we estimate linear probability models to investigate facilitating factors for the use of new media for political participation. The analysis shows that refugees in Germany who inform themselves about politics online tend to be predominantly male, higher educated, and politically involved. Language skills and the duration of stay also appear to be important. For the expression of one’s political opinion online, gender and language skills have an impact, but informing oneself about German politics, political interest, and offline political activity in Germany are the most relevant factors. This indicates that there is a close link between on- und offline activity. However, using the internet requires particular resources, so that people with lower language skills, for example, are particularly disadvantaged.

The new democratisation: social media impact on the political process in Sub-Saharan Africa

The integration of social media into political discourse is becoming the norm, facilitating citizen engagement and amplifying voices across the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study centered on a literature review on the role of social media in political participation within the region. Through exploration across three databases, 50 articles were identified, with 42% of these closely related to the research focus and categorized under five distinct themes. Findings reveal various perspectives on the impact of social media on political engagement, with scholars offering different interpretations on its influence. Furthermore, majority of research underscores the role of social media in mobilizing protests and revolutionary movements driven by heightened participation observed in some SSA countries. Social media platforms are increasingly perceived as avenues to express opinions on pertinent issues contesting unfavorable government actions. Thus, this study posits the emergence of a “New Democratisation in Sub-Saharan Africa,” propelled by the positive utilization of social media in political spheres.

Exploring Social Media Role in Political Awareness Among Voters of Peshawar

The study aims to investigate social media's role in political awareness in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and to understand the voters' perception of social media in political participation. The study is quantitative, and the survey method was used to examine the transition in the political arena in Pakistan during the General Elections 2013 due to the rich participation of social media by political parties and even common citizens. A structured questionnaire was developed with purposive sampling of 260 participants to analyze the voting behavior of Peshawar. This study's results showed that social media enabled political parties and citizens to access information and participate in any political debate. The results also showed that the people of Peshawar responded to the call for demonstrations through social media. The study concludes that citizens got more aware of their political rights with the advent of social media.

How Young People Use New Media in Political Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan

In the study of political participation, the question arises of whether young people use new media as a “political spectacle,” “virtual agora,” or “political coliseum.” This article examines how young citizens use new media in political participation in Russia and Kazakhstan. Drawing on surveys conducted using Qualtrics (N = 2,400) and semistructured interviews (N = 90) carried out in 54 cities, towns, and villages in 2019–2020, I demonstrate that both Russian and Kazakhstani young people use new media as a mixture of political spectacle, virtual agora, and political coliseum. Results revealed that online activists and observers are increasing in numbers in both countries. However, based on the experiences (actions) and views (opinions) of respondents, the most numerous new-media users are apolitical people in Kazakhstan and observers (spectators) in Russia. I also found that for some young people intentional political disengagement and disenchantment might signify political contestation. Online and offline political participation in the forms of contestation is more frequently observed in urban than rural areas in both countries, and participation in “alternative” forms of protests such as monstrations seems to be becoming popular among young Russians and Kazakhstanis. My study sheds light on how new media are used in political participation in the postcommunist context, contributing to cross-national comparative studies of non-Western political systems. Article in English

Competing for the Future: Problematization of the Contemporary System of Automobility in Public Discourse by Yandex Self-Driving Group

In the study of political participation, the question arises of whether young people use new media as a “political spectacle,” “virtual agora,” or “political coliseum.” This article examines how young citizens use new media in political participation in Russia and Kazakhstan. Drawing on surveys conducted using Qualtrics (N = 2,400) and semistructured interviews (N = 90) carried out in 54 cities, towns, and villages in 2019–2020, I demonstrate that both Russian and Kazakhstani young people use new media as a mixture of political spectacle, virtual agora, and political coliseum. Results revealed that online activists and observers are increasing in numbers in both countries. However, based on the experiences (actions) and views (opinions) of respondents, the most numerous new-media users are apolitical people in Kazakhstan and observers (spectators) in Russia. I also found that for some young people intentional political disengagement and disenchantment might signify political contestation. Online and offline political participation in the forms of contestation is more frequently observed in urban than rural areas in both countries, and participation in “alternative” forms of protests such as monstrations seems to be becoming popular among young Russians and Kazakhstanis. My study sheds light on how new media are used in political participation in the postcommunist context, contributing to cross-national comparative studies of non-Western political systems. Article in English

The Impact of Social Media in Political Participation Among Students in Nigeria

The invention and rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has attracted considerable attention in theoretical and practical debates about the role of digital media in political participation. With the emergence of digital media, people in nascent democracies such as Nigeria have started using their online presence to engage in political discussions. This has led to an increase in political protests in undemocratic and developing democracies. While majority of previous digital activism and political communication research suggests positive relationships between digital media diffusion and socio-political protests, there is little research investigating the impact of social media use in digitally organised protest to long term political participation and efficacy formation, particularly in young democracies such as Nigeria. This study bridges that gap in the literature. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of social media use, and protest experience, in political participation and efficacy formation among students in Nigeria. This study reports on a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach, consisting of a 680 face-to-face paper survey response and 34 semi-structured qualitative interviews of university students in Nigeria. Findings show that protest experience, and political efficacy significantly increased students’ intention to join politics more than social media. Of the variables, political efficacy was the strongest predictor of intention to participate in politics. In addition, the study demonstrates that the experience of collective and connective actions increases the likelihood of further political participation among students in Nigeria. This study concludes with a proposed flowchart of political efficacy formation among students in Nigeria.

Antecedents of intentional and incidental exposure modes on social media and consequences for political participation: a panel study

This study investigates antecedents and consequences of incidental and intentional exposure behavior to political information on social media. Based on the Social Media Political Participation Model (SMPPM), we investigated how political and non-political motivations predict intentional and incidental exposure modes while accounting for moderators (i.e., personal curation skills and the frequency of social media political exposure). We also examined how intentional and incidental exposure modes affect low- and high-effort political participation. We rely on data from a two-wave panel survey based on representative quotas for the Austrian population (N = 559) to run autoregressive models. Political information motivation predicted the intentional mode, and this relationship was stronger with rising levels of curation skills. By contrast, entertainment and social interaction motivations increased individuals’ incidental exposure mode. The intentional mode led to low-effort political participation but not to high-effort participation. However, the incidental mode was unrelated to both low- and high-effort participation.

The Use of Social Media and Participation in Political Communication in the 2019 General Election in Nigeria

Research findings have shown that the social media are very active in promotion of citizens’ participation in political and electoral procession in many countries. However, the Nigerian voters before the advent of the social media have been mainly receivers of information on election without being active participants in the electoral information flow. The voters did not have access to the mainstream media which had hitherto been the main conveyors of electoral information. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examine how the electorate in Delta State, Nigeria used the social media for participation in political communication during the 2019 Nigerian general elections. The study is guided by the Technological Acceptance Model which explains how users come to accept and use a technology. The study used survey and questionnaire as method and instrument respectively to gather the data. We used both simple random sampling technique and purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results show that the voters are highly exposed to political communication in the social media; they have favourable perception of the social media usage for political communication; they prefer the social media to the mainstream media in participation in political communication; and they participate more actively in political communication during the said election through the social media more than they did previous elections through the mainstream media. We recommend that that the voters should sustain their exposure to the use of the social media for political participation so that can also be kept abreast of the happenings in the political terrain and they should continue to use the social media to interrogate political leaders, election candidates during elections and after the election period. Keywords: Silenced electorate; Nigerian general elections; social media and elections; political participation; participation in political communication, participation in political discourse. DOI: 10.7176/IKM/10-3-03 Publication date: April 30 th 2020

Social Media Communicative Action and the Interplay with National Security: The Case of Facebook and Political Participation in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACTThe use of social media in political participation in Zimbabwe became more visible after the much celebrated use of Facebook and Twitter in facilitating the “Arab Spring” as well as other similar uprisings. Resultantly, national security concerns have been raised based on the perceived potential of the new media to coordinate and mobilise users. Motivated by this potential conflict, this study uses Habermas’s theory of communicative action to understand how communicative power and national security laws relate in Zimbabwe. The study draws on content from This Flag’s Facebook page as well as a survey conducted with 124 students from Great Zimbabwe University. The study finds that protest is the most dominant issue discussed. However, the survey shows that the majority of the respondents were unwilling to engage in protests. On the interplay between content and national security, the majority of the content was not in conflict with national security regulations guiding political communication. What is significant to note is that the issues have a short lifespan which potentially renders the platform ineffective to influence policy. Further, the study argues that national security concerns on social media should be understood from the perspective of presence and not frequency of content conflicting with national security.

Language, Social Media and Political Identity (Re)presentation: A New Theoretical Framework for the Analysis of Social Media Political Discourse

As language is central to all social processes and practices, so it is considered as the most effective tool for (re)shaping and (re)constructing the social realities and political identities as they are negotiated, (re)constructed and thus projected in the broader social and cultural contexts. Since the advent of new media technologies, particularly social media, the forms and modes of political identity construction and (re)presentations are also transformed. As debated earlier that language enables its users, specifically political actors, to exhibit the political ideologies and identities effectively, so the political actors frequently exploit these platforms to achieve their pre-defined political agendas. Within the same context the political rhetoric, specifically the ones that is generated and exhibited on social media network sites, offers a new visibility for the researchers to explore and predict how ideologies and perceptions can be achieved, advocated, altered and rebuilt through discursive discourse strategies on these networking sites. Providing the power of social media for political participation, political engagement and political activism, there is a need to design such framework that can offer a different lens for the analysis of critical yet sensitive issue of political identity (re)presentation beyond the textual level. To address the above debated issue a new theoretical framework is presented in this paper that enables to analyse the text with special reference to the context in which the political identities are negotiated, (re)constructed and (re)presented. This framework is designed by collaborating the approaches of CDA, Political Identity theory, Social Media theory and Political Discourse theory that enables to explore the interrelationship between the “language in use” and the context in which it is created and consumed.

Use of Social Networking Media in Political Participation: A Study on Dhaka University Students

The role of social networking websites (SNWs) on offline political activities has gained currency in recent days. This study aims to explore the dynamics of relationship between users of social networking websites and their political participation. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 110 students in the University of Dhaka. The empirical study focuses on evaluating whether there is relationship or not between SNWs and offline political participation in different respects. The use of SNWs contributes to boosting consciousness about political activity and political awareness. It also studies to find association between time span used up in SNWs and participation in offline political activities. This study concludes that some specific activities in SNWs have role to develop the level of participation in political activities.

Examining the roles of mobile and social media in political participation: A cross-national analysis of three Asian societies using a communication mediation approach

The Asia-Pacific constitutes the fastest growing region in mobile and social media penetration. Yet, the political implications of the technologies are not fully understood. Using probability samples of university students in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, this study examines the roles of mobile and social media news in offline and online political participation. Consistent with the O-S-R-O-R model (Orientations–Stimulus–Reasoning–Orientations–Response), which derives from communication and cognitive mediation models explaining the relationship between media use and political participation, all three samples demonstrated indirect relationships between mobile/social media use and political participation through interpersonal political discussion and political efficacy. The study contributes to theory building by demonstrating the external validity of the O-S-R-O-R model across different political systems.

Social Media and Political Participation A Study of The People of Dakshina Kannada

Social media is a term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another online. Some of the popular social media sites and its applications include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, blogs and other sites that have content based on user participation and user generated content. The number of netizens in India is growing with every passing day since the Internet revolution in the 1990s. The power and wide reach of social media to reach out to millions of people at the same time, has made it a very powerful tool for political usage. Social media has reshaped the way politicians and citizens are interacting with one another about economic, social and political issues. It helps to communicate and reach citizens faster and has also provided an opportunity to encourage citizen's participation in the democratic process by communicating directly with the decision makers, sharing and posting opinions, organizing protests and creating support for political parties. This study analyses the impact of social media in political participation of the people in Dakshina Kannada district, located on the coastal belt of south Indian state of Karnataka. The district is considered to be educationally and technologically advanced. The study demonstrates how social media adaptation in terms of discussion, sharing and posting of information has become a prominent feature of political and civic life for most people in this district.

Social Media and Youth Online Political Participation: Perspectives on Cognitive Engagement.

The role of social media in political participation cannot be overstated as sites like Facebook and Twitter have provided new avenues for political engagement. Yet, concerns for declining participation among youths has led to increased research in this area. Unfortunately, conflicting results have emerged from such researches, perhaps due to lack of proper theorization of the concept of youth online political participation on social media. Hence, the Cognitive Engagement Theory (CET) will be used as underpinning in the paper. CET from the perspective of online political participation on social media embodies two separate trend. First, is the decrease in the cost of acquiring information; and second, the increase in youth’s ability to process political information which in turn enhances participation. This means that youths will have more political resources allowing them to deal with political issues and understand how democracy works in their society. Consequently, using CET has helped to clarify differing results as it contain variables such as access to political information on social media, political knowledge, political interest and policy satisfaction which better explains the concept of youth online political participation on social media, hence decreasing the inconsistencies experienced in previous researches. Keywords: Social Media, Online Political Participation, Cognitive Engagement Theory, Youths.

Die Rolle der Massenmedien im Demokratisierungsprozeß am Beispiel Tansania

Against the background of the recent debate on democracy the author gives a critical outlood on the role of media in political participation and public opinion. Based on the case study of Tanzania some stereotype developments in traditional and mass media are shown from independance up to nowadays. Conceptual considerations in terms of development theory and their influence on the efficiency of political participation are reviewed and checked by own and collected empirical data. A rough sketch of a possible new definition of mass media and other communicators within the development of political will is given whereas the need for democratical transition is emphasized