Is Social Media Conducive to Political Engagement?

Elaine Yinan Cai

Published on Gnovis Journal, November 3, 2014
http://www.gnovisjournal.org/2014/11/03/is-social-media-conducive-to-political-engage
ment-davies-r-2014-march-28-social-media-in-election-campaigning-retrievedfromhttpe
pthinktank-eu20140328social-media-in-election-campaigning/

While most people have put aside their worries to prepare Halloween costumes, citizens
in Hong Kong are still focused on their protest, posting every piece of related information
to their Facebook pages. If you have a friend from Hong Kong on Facebook, you will
never miss anything about their political activities or political attitudes, even if you are
not a political person.

Few people will deny that social media has changed the way people acquire information,
but what are social medias impacts on political engagement? If political engagement is
defined as political knowledge, political interest, and offline political participation, then
the fundamental question becomes whether or not social media can increase a persons
political engagement. Looking at how social media has interacted with social movements
in recent years, we can gain some insight into this question.

According to a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center, 78% of people get news
from Facebook incidentally (Mitchell, Kiley, Gottfried, & Guskin, 2013). The research
shows that 64% of U.S. adults use Facebook, and 30% of U.S. adults get news from it.

However, among those Facebook news consumers, only 4% regard Facebook as their
major approach to news, while the majority (78%) see news unintentionally when they
use it for other purposes. This situation must seem familiar: When you glance at your
friends Facebook photos to see how they spent their weekends, news about Obamas
Ebola Quarantine Policy attracts your attention. When browsing randomly on the
Facebook homepage, you find your classmates sharing videos, links, or statuses about the
Scottish independence referendum. You then know something must have happened in
Scotland, though you never cared about anything in the UK or Scotland, except their
whiskey.

Accordingly, from my perspective, social media can increase peoples political

knowledge, because users are exposed to a news-saturated environment and thus have
more opportunities to receive more political information, either intentionally or
unintentionally.

Previous research, regarding political participation offline, is often contradictory. Some

studies express negative attitudes towards social medias effects on increasing political
participation (Davies, 2014; Dimitrova, Shehata, Strmbck, & Nord, 2014), while other
studies find positive correlation between the use of social media and peoples political
participation (Holt, Shehata, Strmbck & Ljungberg, 2013; Xenosa, Vromen, & Loader,
2014; Skoric & Poor, 2013). Nevertheless, the latter studies fail to prove a causal
relationship. While it is possible to conceive that people who are more interested in
politics and engage in political activities use social media more frequently, we cannot

conclude from these studies that the use of social media has an influence on increasing
peoples political participation.

However, social medias influence on Hong Kongs recent protest, also known as
Umbrella Movement, is noticeable. U.S. media even claims this protest is a social
media revolution (Greenwood & Sprenger, 2014; Parker, 2014). From my observations,
most of my Hong Kong friends post protest-related content on their Facebook every day.
Additionally, theyve expressed they would participate or have participated in the protest
using social media. According to Tindall and Groenewegen (2014), participation requests
from acquaintances with strong social network ties are the key to individuals
engagement in political activism. Peer pressure, crowd psychology (Le, 1896), and the
polarity shift phenomenon (Stiff & Mongeau, 2003) can help us understand the influence
of social media in offline political participation. Hence, I believe the use of social media
can increase peoples offline participation, at least in the Umbrella Movement. People
have strong social network ties with each other, and the use of Facebook tightens
potential protesters social ties with people in the movement. In Singapores 2008 protest
and the 2011 Arab Spring, social media also played a large role in organizing protests and
enhancing peoples political activity (Skoric & Poor, 2013; Tindall & Groenewegen,
2014).

Though the use of social media can increase peoples political knowledge and offline
political participation, a question arises as to whether or not social media can also
increase peoples political interest and attract those who are initially disengaged in

politics. My answer is no. As early as 1948, Lazarsfelds research articulated that mass
medias influence on changing peoples minds is limited. Scholars in persuasion research
also admit that, changing peoples attitudes and behaviors is the most difficult (Stiff &
Mongeau, 2003; Jowett & ODonnell, 1999; Jamieson, 2000). In most cases, a persons
political predisposition is determined by the environment in which he or she grows up,
education, culture, and neurobiological factors. The mere use of social media could rarely
influence or change peoples interests.

Reviewing previous research and political movements leads me to the conclusion that
while the use of social media can increase peoples political knowledge and political
participation, it has a limited effect on increasing political interest. But dont get
frustrated! Even though social media can not change peoples political interest easily, it
can improve the publics political awareness and political participation. Thus, social
media is still an important tool that policy makers and candidates should not ignore.

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