Political Use Of Social Media Research Articles

Use of Social Media by Indian Cabinet Ministers to Propagate Their Work and Connect with Masses

The political use of social media in India has assumed a whole new role, scale and meaning. While abundant research has been done on how social media is used by politicians for campaigning during elections, this research aims to go a step further and discover how social media is used when election is over and governance is on. This research will focus on the use of Facebook by cabinet ministers to connect with masses and inform them about latest political and administrative developments relevant to their departments, about their work and to provide interesting glimpses into their personal lives. Most of the cabinet ministers have their official Facebook pages. This research will analyze the content posted by them on their official Facebook pages with the help of Fanpage karma which is an online tool for social media monitoring and analytics.

The Group Roots of Social Media Politics: Social Sorting Predicts Perceptions of and Engagement in Politics on Social Media

Research on political partisans suggests that social media offer ideal playing fields for the group game of politics. This study considers how political and social identities interact to influence political communication on social media. Using an original two-wave survey of Americans fielded during the 2020 election period, we analyzed how social media users’ levels of social sorting—the alignment between racial, religious, ideological, and political identities—related to perceptions of and engagement in politics on social media. Results suggest that those with higher (vs. lower) levels of social sorting were more likely to perceive their social media environments as dominated by political content and conflict, and populated with politically interested and like-minded people. Auto-regressive panel models suggested that social sorting and political use of social media may be reciprocally related. Findings indicate social sorting may be a key concept for unearthing the group roots of politics on social media.

Selective avoidance as a cognitive response: examining the political use of social media and surveillance anxiety in avoidance behaviours

ABSTRACT As the 2020 United State Presidential election presented tense partisan conflicts, we sought to explore whether and how such a social and ideological fissure can lead to large-scale politically motivated avoidance behaviours. Building on prior literature, we examine how social media behaviours (i.e. expressive social media news use and political discussion with weak ties) and social psychological attitudes (i.e. surveillance anxiety) are associated with selective avoidance on social media. Further, we explore cognitive ability's direct and indirect roles in influencing avoidance behaviours. We used online panel survey data collected during the 2020 election to test our assumptions. The findings suggest that those with high levels of expressive social media news use, political discussions with weak ties, and surveillance anxiety engage in more frequent selective avoidance. On the contrary, those with high cognitive ability are less likely to engage in selective avoidance. Furthermore, moderation effects suggest that low cognitive users with greater surveillance anxiety and frequent discussions with weak ties are most accustomed to selective avoidance. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and policy implications of these findings.

Exploring Factors Affecting Voters’ Participation in a Presidential Campaign: A Qualitative Study in a Post-Revolutionary Society

The purpose of this paper is to explore factors affecting the political participation of Tunisian citizens during the presidential elections in 2019. Due to the increased use of social media in modern politics, we aim to enhance our understanding of the effect of the political use of social media on voting behavior. A purposive sampling through 16 semi-structured interviews is used. Data was collected from Tunisian citizens who were eligible to vote. Data retrieved was triangulated by an in-depth interview with an expert in political marketing to provide a better understanding. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings suggest that the important factors which influence a voter’s decision-making were political interest, political trust, political efficacy, and candidate image. The political use of social media also had a high level of importance and influence on behavioral intentions. This research sheds the light on a very contemporary area related to political marketing in an emergent country that is still in a democracy-transition phase. Furthermore, this research focuses on the rise of the political use of social media that is actively becoming an important factor in the political landscape in the Arab region and particularly in Tunisia, especially its role in the Arab spring events.

A Repertoire Approach to Studying Inequalities in Political Social Media Use

ABSTRACT This paper adopts a repertoire approach to studying inequalities in political use of social media, focusing on patterns of political behavior on Facebook. A Latent Class Analysis of a 2016 two-wave survey of Americans identified four distinct political repertoires on Facebook; 1) Disengaged, 2) All-engaged, 3) Expressers (only likely to do expressive behaviors) and 4) Likers (only likely to “like” content). Using these classes of users, we reexamined prominent hypotheses in the literature related to whether political social media use is a) stratified by education and political interest and b) associated with increased political knowledge and participation.

Using Social Media for government communications: A closer look at this popular communication outlet and it’s use in the local government sector.

Social media can be a marketer’s dream with the ability to engage, collect research and communicate information quickly and to a large number of people. This is likely why so many businesses have jumped on board enjoying this communication outlet after seeing its popularity from a socializing aspect. In recent years, we have found this mode of communication to begin gaining popularity in the government sector. Many politicians are using this platform to communicate, gain popularity and even gauge consumer response. This paper takes an in-depth look at government communications and political use of social media focusing on a local government level. This paper explores some of the apprehensions with utilizing this platform and strategies to mitigate problems. Finally, this paper also looks at how to implement a social media policy for local governments that don’t currently employ a strategy.

Re-Conceptualizing Public Sphere in the Digital Era: From Habermas' Public Sphere to Digitally Networked Public Sphere

Technological networks have established a new social morphology of the modern world. The paper provides an understanding of the notion of the networked public sphere by examining all the seminal notions to theorize the ‘Networked Public Sphere’. The paper reflects that the boundaries between old and new media have been blurred and the new media technologies have established a hybrid environment in which there is a huge interplay between conventional media and new media. The paper concludes that the political use of social media among citizens in the networked public sphere helps to devise strategies to be engaged in online and offline political activities and generate a public discourse among them that influence the political domains of the society.

Strong-tie discussion, political trust and political participation: A comparative study of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

This study examined the relationships between social media use, strong-tie discussion, and political participation in three Chinese societies, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Our findings showed that strong-tie discussion is positively related to collective action participation across the three societies. More importantly, strong-tie discussion mediates the effect of political use of social media on political participation in mainland China and Taiwan, but not in Hong Kong. Furthermore, we explored the moderation role of political trust, finding that it narrows down the participation gap between those who use social media more and those who use less in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while enlarges the participation gap in mainland China. This study contributes to the theory of deliberative and participatory democracy by examining the role of strong tie in Chinese contexts and suggests that strong-tie discussion may exert a more important effect on political participation in a more collectivistic society.

Political social media use and its linkage to populist and postmaterialist attitudes and vote intention in the Netherlands

This study focuses on social media use of citizens from two groups that are often associated with the rise of social media: populist and postmaterialist citizens. Considering their ideological underpinnings, we theorize that they will make more political use of social media and that this further reifies their political attitudes into voting for populist and postmaterialist parties, respectively. Using unique survey data including the relatively new populist attitudes and political use of social media, we test this theory on the Dutch case. We find that both groups do not read political news or connect to politicians more, but both are more likely to react to political content. Moreover, social media use does not seem to lead to a retention in one’s own ideological funnel signified by populist or postmaterialist voting. Among more postmaterialist citizens, passive social media use even makes it more likely to vote for other parties.

Let’s Get Ready to Tweet! An Analysis of Twitter Use by 2018 Senate Candidates

To what extent did the 2018 Senate candidates adapt their Twitter strategy to match electoral realities during the campaign? Previous literature on the political use of social media suggests that Twitter is a gauge of “word of mouth” popularity and can be seen as an indirect proxy for votes. As such, Senate candidates have an incentive to be strategic in their use of social media during the election season. Relying on the framework set forth by Gainous and Wagner (2014), we categorized senatorial candidates’ tweets using an Artificial Neural Network and analyzed them over time to see if political party, presidential vote margin, incumbency and Senate race competitiveness predict the types of tweets that candidates were likely to send. Senate candidate tweets were also examined to determine under what conditions candidates opted to attack, stay quiet about, or align themselves with President Trump. We found that incumbents tended to talk about policy more and attack less, while challengers attacked their opponents to level the playing field. Democratic candidates followed a conventional strategy of tweeting about Trump where it made strategic sense, and using social media in competitive races to attack their opponents and to encourage supporters to get involved. Republicans followed a base-mobilization strategy consisting of aligning themselves with Trump and attacking their opponents when they were underdogs.

“Backstage moments during the campaign”: The interactive use of Instagram by Spanish political leaders

The political use of social media is a well-established field of research. We perform a content analysis of the messages posted on Instagram—one of the fastest growing social networking sites—by the leaders of the four main political parties in Spain, with special emphasis on the interactive use of this platform and the functions played by the posts. The sample of Instagram posts includes a non-election period and a period of regional elections. The results point to a practically irrelevant use of interactive tools, and an emphasis on the self-promotion of leaders and their parties. Accordingly, the data show that Instagram is basically used by Spanish leaders as a supplement to their campaign efforts and strategic objectives. These findings are discussed and linked to broader theoretical issues such as the hypothesis of normalization and the use of the Internet for broadcasting.

Public police’s philanthropy and Twitter communications in Canada

PurposePolice services, police associations and police foundations now engage in philanthropy and these efforts are communicated using social media. This paper examines social media framing of the philanthropic and charitable work of police in Canada.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from discourse and semiotic analyses, the authors examined the ways that police communications frame contributions to charity and community’s well-being. Tweets were analyzed for themes, hashtags and images that conveyed the philanthropic work of police services, police associations as well as police foundations.FindingsThe authors discovered four main forms of framing in these social media communications, focusing on community, diversity, youth and crime prevention. The authors argue that police used these communications as mechanisms to flaunt social capital and to boost perceptions of legitimacy and benevolence.Research limitations/implicationsMore analyses are needed to examine such representations over time and in multiple jurisdictions.Practical implicationsExamining police communications about philanthropy not only reveals insights about the politics of giving but also the political use of social media by police.Originality/valueSocial media is used by organizations to position themselves in social networks. The increased use of social media by police, for promoting philanthropic work, is political in the sense that it aims to bolster a sense of legitimacy.

Social Media Use and Participation in Dueling Protests: The Case of the 2016–2017 Presidential Corruption Scandal in South Korea

This study examines how citizens’ social media use may have influenced their participation in highly polarizing protests during the 2016–2017 corruption scandal in South Korea. As social media users mobilize politically by acquiring varied political information from other users, social media use created more incentives for citizens to participate in both pro- and anti-impeachment protests during the scandal. Given that social media is an important arena for political activism, participation in rival protests also influences many motivated protesters to strengthen their side’s voices online. Thus, protests may increase citizens’ political use of social media. Our empirical analysis suggests that social network service use does not influence citizens’ political activities in a unidirectional manner. We have found that social media use and participation in rival protests reciprocally influence each other.

Social Media as a Marketing Tool for Political Purpose and Its Implications on Political Knowledge, Participation, and Interest

Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities these days. In 2018, it is estimated that 2.65 billion people were using social media worldwide and these numbers are expected to reach almost 3.1 billion by 2021, the majority of whom are young people. With some notable exceptions, there are few studies that have been undertaken in the field of politics and social media. This study examines how usage of social media for political purpose influences the voting behavior of the voter in this realm. The authors test the proposition that using social media for political use offers a new pathway to their political participation, interest, and knowledge using path analysis. Results demonstrate that political use of social media impacted both levels of and growth in traditional political participation, interest, and knowledge during the 2019 election.

Depolarization through social media use: Evidence from dual identifiers in Hong Kong

Despite the concern that partisan selectivity in the political use of social media leads to mass polarization, the empirical evidence is mixed at best. Given the possibility that these inconclusive findings are attributable to moderators in the process that have not been adequately studied, this article elaborates the roles played by different forms of social identities. By analyzing three datasets collected in Hong Kong, where Chinese and Hong Kongese identities are constructed in a nonmutually exclusive way, this study demonstrates that (1) partisan selectivity in media use is reliably detected among those with single Hong Kongese identity, but not among those with dual identities of Hong Kongese and Chinese, (2) the political use of social media polarizes the attitudes and affects of single identifiers, whereas it has depolarizing effects on dual identifiers, and (3) these contrasting effects on polarization between single and dual identifiers have downstream consequences for political participation.

Ideological motives, digital divides, and political polarization: How do political party preference and values correspond with the political use of social media?

Social media provides new platforms for political participation and ideological categorization. However, little research has been done on how party preference is related to politically active social media use. We begin with a consideration of how political participation on social media has evolved between various socio-economic and demographic groups in advanced information societies and especially in Finland. In our empirical analysis we examine the general use of social media as well as its use for political purposes with the aid of a nationally representative dataset, collected in 2017–2018 from 3724 Finnish citizens. We argue that there are notable differences between parties when examining their supporters’ social media use for political purposes. The differences are related to the digital divides and political extremes. The results confirmed the idea that new political movements made up of younger and more educated supporters have been successful by leveraging social media. The study also revealed that the ideological gap between party supporters is greater in social media especially when examining new kinds of politics based on cultural questions, identity issues, and post-materialist values.

Do birds of different feather flock together? Analyzing the political use of social media through a language-based approach in a multilingual context

This study analyzes the political use of Twitter in the run-up to the 2013 Malaysian General Election. It follows a content and social network analysis approach to investigate the interplay of language and political partisanship in social media use, among Twitter users in Malaysia. In the period leading up to the 2013 elections, Twitter posts collected under the hashtag #GE13 reveal that communities that post in English versus the Malay language, differ in how they use Twitter and with whom they interact. As compared to English users, Malay users are more likely to seek political information and express their political opinion. In online discussions, we observe language-based homophily within the English and Malay language communities, but there are some cross-cutting interactions between opposing political communities. We discuss the implications of our findings for the political use of new communication technologies in multi-ethnic and multilingual societies.

Who creates the bandwagon? The dynamics of fear of isolation, opinion congruency and anonymity-preference on social media in the 2017 South Korean presidential election

This paper proposes a new approach to study fear of isolation (FOI), with special attention to psychological motivations/gratifications sought in the online sphere (opinion congruency-seeking and anonymity-preference), which may lead to political expression via social media. We posit that individuals with FOI will display a tendency to want to match their opinions with the majority and will also actively utilize online platforms as they offer anonymity. This empirical study collected data from a random sample of 1107 participants in South Korea, a frontrunner in terms of political expression on social media. The results demonstrated that FOI is associated with opinion congruency as well as anonymity-preference and further, political use of social media which prompts offline political engagement. Findings of this paper goes beyond conventional paradigms on political psychology (selective exposure based on partisanship or ideology) and contribute to a better understanding of how anonymous, online behaviors generate political engagement.

Piracy and the Politics of Social Media

Since the 1990s, the understanding of how and where politics are made has changed radically. Scholars such as Ulrich Beck and Maria Bakardjieva have discussed how political agency is enacted outside of conventional party organizations, and political struggles increasingly focus on single issues. Over the past two decades, this transformation of politics has become common knowledge, not only in academic research but also in the general political discourse. Recently, the proliferation of digital activism and the political use of social media are often understood to enforce these tendencies. This article analyzes the Pirate Party in relation to these theories, relying on almost 30 interviews with active Pirate Party members from different parts of the world. The Pirate Party was initially formed in 2006, focusing on copyright, piracy, and digital privacy. Over the years, it has developed into a more general democracy movement, with an interest in a wider range of issues. This article analyzes how the party’s initial focus on information politics and social media connects to a wider range of political issues and to other social movements, such as Arab Spring protests and Occupy Wall Street. Finally, it discusses how this challenges the understanding of information politics as a single issue agenda.

Of Echo Chambers and Contrarian Clubs: Exposure to Political Disagreement Among German and Italian Users of Twitter

Scholars have debated whether social media platforms, by allowing users to select the information to which they are exposed, may lead people to isolate themselves from viewpoints with which they disagree, thereby serving as political “echo chambers.” We investigate hypotheses concerning the circumstances under which Twitter users who communicate about elections would engage with (a) supportive, (b) oppositional, and (c) mixed political networks. Based on online surveys of representative samples of Italian and German individuals who posted at least one Twitter message about elections in 2013, we find substantial differences in the extent to which social media facilitates exposure to similar versus dissimilar political views. Our results suggest that exposure to supportive, oppositional, or mixed political networks on social media can be explained by broader patterns of political conversation (i.e., structure of offline networks) and specific habits in the political use of social media (i.e., the intensity of political discussion). These findings suggest that disagreement persists on social media even when ideological homophily is the modal outcome, and that scholars should pay more attention to specific situational and dispositional factors when evaluating the implications of social media for political communication.