Social Media and Civic Engagement
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Social Media and Civic Engagement Kelsey Hinchliffe PSC 4099 11.6.2011 1
description
Transcript of Social Media and Civic Engagement
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Social Media and Civic
Engagement
Kelsey HinchliffePSC 4099 11.6.2011
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Research Questions• Do Americans believe that
social media usage can encourage political participation?• Does social media usage
increase traditional political participation? • Does social media usage
increase new forms of civic engagement?
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Literature Review • Who uses social media?• 88% of Americans have a Facebook• 70% check their Facebook at least 3
times a week• 44% use Facebook as their main news
source
(Baumgartner and Morris 2009)
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Literature Review
• Does social media usage equal increased political participation?• No more likely to sign a petition, vote or write
to a politician• Hope in Germany?
(Bichard, Johnson, Setzler and Zhang 2010) (Sander, Sprenger, Tumasjan and Welpe 2010)
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Literature Review• Redefining forms of political participation• “For this dimension of civic and political
engagement then, the evidence suggests an optimistic picture of the Internet as a positive force for democratic citizenship”
(Moy and Xenos 2007)
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Hypotheses• H1: The majority of Americans believe that
social media encourages political participation and supplies useful political information and news.
• H2: Social media users will be no more likely than other citizens to engage in traditional forms of political participation such as voting, contributing money to a campaign or volunteering for a campaign.
• H3: Social media users will be more likely than other citizens to engage in new forms of civic participation such as downloading and uploading political videos to the Internet and “friending” politicians on Facebook and Twitter.
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Dependent Variables• Opinions about social media• Encourage voting• Acquiring political news• Twitter supplies relevant political
information
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Dependent Variables• Traditional Forms of Political
Participation• Registered to vote• Voted in 2010 elections• Contributed money to a campaign in
the 2010 elections• Volunteered for a campaign in the
2010 elections
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Dependent Variables• New Forms of Civic Engagement • Friended a politician on Twitter • Friended a politician on Facebook • Uploaded a video about politics • Downloaded a video about politics
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Independent Variable• Social media usage
Control Variables• Income• Education• Age• Gender• Race • Party Identification
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Social Media User Non Social Media User
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
78.283.6
60.466.7
100
67.3
Opinions About Social Media by Social Media Usage
Internet Encourages Vot-ingInternet Aids in Acquir-ing Political InformationTwitter Supplies Rele-vant Political Information
Social Media Usage
Per
cen
tage
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Social Media User Non Social Media User0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
89.481.1
75.7
62.5
1.1 1.5
26.5
Traditional Political Participation by Social Media Usage
Registered to VoteVotedContributed Money to a CampaignVolunteered for a Campaign
Social Media Usage
Per
cen
tage
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Social Media User Non Social Media User0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
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2.54.4
1.42.9
11.2 11.2
17.6
10.1
New Political Participation by Social Media Usage
Uploaded Political VideoDownloaded Political VideoFriended a Politician on FacebookFollowed a Politician on Twitter
Social Media Usage
Per
cen
tage
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Educ (0 -> 1)
Age (0 -> 1)
Income (0 -> 1)
Race (0 -> 1)
Party (0 -> 1)
Gender (0 -> 1)
-0.20 -0.10 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40
CHANGE IN THE PROBABILITY OF BEING A SOCIAL MEDIA USER AS EACH INDEPENDENT VARIABLE INCREASES FROM ITS MIN TO MAX
VALUE
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Educ (0 -> 1)
Age (0 -> 1)
Income (0 -> 1)
Race (0 -> 1)
Party (0 -> 1)
Gender (0 -> 1)
Social Media User (0 -> 1)
.00 .10
THE PROBABILITY OF DOWNLOADING A VIDEO ABOUT POLI-TICS
EACH INDEPENDENT VARIABLE AT ITS MINIMUM AND MAXI-MUM VALUES WITH ALL OTHER VARIABLES HELD CONSTANT
Probability of outcome at maximum value
Probability of outcome at minimum value
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Educ (0 -> 1)
Age (0 -> 1)
Income (0 -> 1)
Race (0 -> 1)
Party (0 -> 1)
Gender (0 -> 1)
Social Media User (0 -> 1)
-0.10 0.00 0.10 0.20
CHANGE IN THE PROBABILITY OF VOTING AS EACH INDEPENDENT VARIABLE INCREASES
FROM ITS MIN TO MAX VALUE
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Discussion• Americans think highly of social media’s capability to
increase political participation• No significant changes in traditional forms of political
participation• No significant changes in new forms of civic
engagement
Why aren’t sentiments translating to actions?
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Conclusion• Control variables: income,
education, age • Are social media users proportionally
represented in survey? • Evolving social media
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Conclusion• Discussion, debate, freedom of
expression• Support our vibrant democracy • Social media acts as a forum
