The relationship between passive and active non-political social media use and political expression on Facebook and Twitter

Departing from the conventional approach that emphasizes civic and political motives for political engagement, this study investigates how political social media behaviors—political expression—might emerge out of everyday, non-political use of the sites from an interpersonal communication perspective. Using two separate adult samples of Facebook (n = 727) and Twitter users (n = 663), this study examines how non-political, passive (NPP, consuming non-political content) and non-political, active (NPA, producing non-political content) social media use relate to expression of political voice on the sites. Findings show that only NPA use is positively associated with increased political expression, and this relationship is partially explained by political efficacy. The patterns of findings are consistent across Facebook and Twitter.     

Some of these things are not like the others: Examining motivations and political predispositions among political Facebook activity

Political engagement via social media has evolved, and web sites including Facebook continue to be a place for individuals, especially young ones, to engage politically. Because politics on social media is diverse, it makes sense that the reasons for participating in it vary. In addition, because current events information and political news is accessible via social media, the role of attention to traditional news sources in this type of political engagement is debatable. The study takes up the opportunity to address these questions by examining young people’s attention to television, print, and online news, their engagement with four Facebook political activities, and their psychological motivations for using the website politically just prior to the 2012 U.S. Presidential election. The results suggest that the primary motivations for using Facebook politically are not universal, and indeed vary by activity. They revolve around connecting with others socially, sharing information with others, and presenting oneself to others. In addition, attention to offline and online news largely do not matter. The study moves research forward by describing the variety of psychological predispositions some Facebook users bring to their political engagement with the web site, and how these predispositions vary across different Facebook political behavior.     

Ferguson on Facebook: Political persuasion in a new era of media effects

In 2014, media outlets deemed political satirist John Oliver's show the best of the year. Described as “the online water-cooler,” his show has become a talking point for many on social media. In this study, we tested the effects of such political comedy and the influence of social pressure in a simulated Facebook environment (N = 189). Participants in this experiment were asked to view a video clip from Oliver's show (high or low salience topic) and in two of the four conditions, a series of Facebook comments contradicting Oliver's views (as a form of social pressure) were provided. Results support a message-consistent persuasive effect of political comedy for both high and low salience issues but finds that message-incongruent commentary reduces this persuasive effect. Thus, the current study provides further insight regarding persuasive effects of sharing political information on social media and new opportunities for exposing entertainment seekers to politics.     

We Face,I Tweet: How Different Social Media Influence Political Participation through Collective and Internal Efficacy

This study advances a theoretical model centered on collective and internal efficacy to explain the separate pathways through which political sharing on Facebook and Twitter may influence individuals to engage in political activities. We test the model with data from a 2‐wave panel survey conducted with an adult population in 2013 in Chile. We found that frequent usage of Facebook and Twitter for sharing political information is conducive to higher levels of participation through different efficacy measures. Facebook has a significant effect on collective—not internal—efficacy, whereas Twitter's effect is on internal—not collective—efficacy. Results are discussed in light of the diverse affordances and strengths of network ties of Facebook and Twitter.     

Social Media Use for News and Individuals' Social Capital,Civic Engagement and Political Participation

Recently, scholars tested how digital media use for informational purposes similarly contributes to foster democratic processes and the creation of social capital. Nevertheless, in the context of today's socially‐networked‐society and the rise of social media applications (i.e., Facebook) new perspectives need to be considered. Based on U.S. national data, results show that after controlling for demographic variables, traditional media use offline and online, political constructs (knowledge and efficacy), and frequency and size of political discussion networks, seeking information via social network sites is a positive and significant predictor of people's social capital and civic and political participatory behaviors, online and offline.     

Political Expression and Action on Social Media: Exploring the Relationship Between Lower‐ and Higher‐Threshold Political Activities Among Twitter Users in Italy

Scholars and commentators have debated whether lower‐threshold forms of political engagement on social media should be treated as being conducive to higher‐threshold modes of political participation or a diversion from them. Drawing on an original survey of a representative sample of Italians who discussed the 2013 election on Twitter, we demonstrate that the more respondents acquire political information via social media and express themselves politically on these platforms, the more they are likely to contact politicians via e‐mail, campaign for parties and candidates using social media, and attend offline events to which they were invited online. These results suggest that lower‐threshold forms of political engagement on social media do not distract from higher‐threshold activities, but are strongly associated with them.     

Integrating truth bias and elaboration likelihood to understand how political polarisation impacts disinformation engagement on social media

Political polarisation has become an increasingly alarming issue in society, exacerbated by the widespread use of social media and the development of filter bubbles among social media users. This environment has left users susceptible to disinformation, especially those with whom a user is politically aligned. In this research, we integrate truth bias, elaboration likelihood model and new media literacy into a model for explaining social media engagement (with both disinformation and factual information) and analysing how political polarisation (operationalised as political alignment between users) influences perceptions and behaviours. Using an experimental design, we analyse the model separately for posts containing disinformation and factual information, highlighting key differences. Political alignment positively moderates truth bias's effect on engagement with disinformation. For both disinformation and factual information, political alignment moderates the effect of generalised communicative suspicion (GCS) on truth bias, such that GCS's effect on truth bias flips from negative to positive as political alignment increases. Issue involvement and political alignment appear to be the primary drivers of disinformation engagement, with critical consuming media literacy failing to mitigate engagement. Our findings contribute to the understanding of persuasion, conviction, amplification, polarisation and aversion related to fake news on social media.     

The relationship between frequency of Facebook use, participation in Facebook activities, and student engagement

Educators and others are interested in the effects of social media on college students, with a specific focus on the most popular social media website—Facebook. Two previous studies have examined the relationship between Facebook use and student engagement, a construct related to positive college outcomes. However, these studies were limited by their evaluation of Facebook usage and how they measured engagement. This paper fills a gap in the literature by using a large sample (N = 2368) of college students to examine the relationship between frequency of Facebook use, participation in Facebook activities, and student engagement. Student engagement was measured in three ways: a 19-item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement, time spent preparing for class, and time spent in co-curricular activities. Results indicate that Facebook use was significantly negatively predictive of engagement scale score and positively predictive of time spent in co-curricular activities. Additionally, some Facebook activities were positively predictive of the dependent variables, while others were negatively predictive.     

“I like them,but won't ‘like’ them”: An examination of impression management associated with visible political party affiliation on Facebook

Unlike traditional media, our interactions with political parties via social media are generally public, subject to scrutiny by others and, consequently, a self-presentation concern. This paper contributes to theory on impression management within social network sites (SNSs) by providing an understanding of the effect of visible affiliation on page ‘Liking’ behavior in the context of political parties; specifically, the possible association with social anxiety and the use of protective impression management. We predict that while users may be motivated to ‘Like’ a political party, some may feel socially anxious about the impressions their friends may derive from this action, and so ultimately choose to refrain from ‘Liking’ the party. Furthermore, we propose a new function of ‘Secret Likes’ (i.e. ‘Likes’ that others cannot see) as a means to increase gateway interactions. A survey of eligible voters (n = 225) was conducted in the month prior to the 2015 UK general election, examining behavior associated with the Facebook pages of the two largest political parties. Results support that conspicuous affiliation with political parties indeed hinders intention to ‘Like’ political pages and is associated with social anxiety. ‘Secret Likes’ were found to be a successful method to increase gateway interactions. In addition to the theoretical contribution, implications for political party communications and site designers are considered.     

Understanding civic engagement behaviour on Facebook from a social capital theory perspective

This paper applies the social capital theory to construct a model for investigating the factors that influence online civic engagement behaviour on Facebook. While there is promising evidence that people are making concerted efforts to adopt Facebook to address social issues, research on their civic behaviour from a social capital viewpoint in the social media context remains limited. This study introduces new insights into how Facebook is shaping the landscape of civic engagement by examining three dimensions of social capital – social interaction ties (structural), trust (relational), and shared languages and vision (cognitive). The study contends that these dimensions will influence individuals’ online civic engagement behaviour on Facebook. We also argue that social interaction ties can engender trust, and shared languages and vision among its members, and that shared languages and vision can increase trust among Facebook members. Empirical data collected from 1233 Facebook users provide support for the proposed model. The results help in identifying the motivation underlying the online civic engagement behaviour of individuals in a public virtual community. The implications for theory and practice and future research directions are discussed.     

The links that bind: Uncovering novel motivations for linking on Facebook

Given the increasing uptake of the social network site Facebook, mass communication researchers have begun focusing on what drives people to use the site and what kinds of information they interact with. Perhaps because of the relative novelty of Facebook, little research has scratched beneath the surface to explore why people engage in certain functions the site offers. Attention to these engagements and the motivations behind them could help improve current mass communication approaches, especially in critical industries such as news media, where traditional models are struggling to evolve. This study explored user motivations for engaging in link-sharing through Facebook, uncovering motives that extend beyond those of previous research. The findings also consider the influence of those motivations on linking frequency, and link content, introducing motivations that add to current viewpoints of social network sites as information hubs. It also provides new media researchers and practitioners with novel insight into an increasingly important Facebook behavior.     

Does Twitter motivate involvement in politics? Tweeting,opinion leadership,and political engagement

This paper, in order to deepen our understanding of the role of opinion leadership on Twitter, the world’s largest microblogging service, has investigated the interrelationships between opinion leadership, Twitter use motivations, and political engagement. It finds that Twitter opinion leaders have higher motivations of information seeking, mobilization, and public expression than nonleaders. It has also been found that mobilization and public-expression motivations mediate the association between perceived opinion leadership and Twitter use frequency. Most importantly, this study finds that Twitter opinion leadership makes a significant contribution to individuals’ involvement in political processes, while Twitter use itself or media use motivation does not necessarily help individuals’ political engagement.     

The politics of “Unfriending”: User filtration in response to political disagreement on social media

This article examines exposure to political disagreement on social media and user filtration in response to it. Popular arguments suggest that social media sites prevent exposure to political disagreement either through algorithmic filtration or selective affiliation. Another popular argument says that when users are exposed to political disagreement on social media, they filter it from their feeds by “unfriending”/“unfollowing” or “hiding” the author. We put these narratives to the test by examining (a) the relationship between social media use and exposure to political disagreement and (b) the factors that predict user filtration in response to political disagreement. Results from analysis based on a nationally representative sample of Colombian adults in urban areas show that (a) engagement with news and public affairs content on social media is positively associated with exposure to political disagreement and (b) the amount of disagreement users are exposed to is not related to user filtration in response.     

Social media use,community participation and psychological well-being among individuals with serious mental illnesses

BackgroundLittle research exists on social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) use among individuals with serious mental illnesses (SMI). One particular question of interest is the extent to which online social media use is associated with these individuals' community participation, civic engagement and psychosocial outcomes.MethodsTwo-hundred and thirty-two individuals with SMI receiving services at 18 mental health organizations throughout the continental U.S. completed questionnaires on their community participation, civic engagement, quality of life, loneliness, and psychiatric symptoms. They were also asked which social media sites they used; the duration, frequency and importance of, and reasons for, social media use; and the number of contacts they had on social media.ResultsApproximately a third of the sample reported having at least one social media account. Greater frequency, intensity and longevity of social media were associated with higher levels of community participation, and greater intensity of social media use was positively associated with civic engagement. For instance, those who used social media at least 30 min a day had 16.4 more days of participation and voting rates that were higher by 17.4%. Social media use was not found to be significantly associated with loneliness, psychiatric symptoms or quality of life.Discussion and implicationsGreater social media use appears to be associated with greater community engagement without negative repercussions on loneliness, symptoms, or quality of life. Interventions that support social media use among individuals with SMI could have important community integration benefits.     

All the news that’s fit to post: A profile of news use on social networking sites

Facebook and other social networking sites (SNSs)¹ are altering the way individuals communicate. These online environments allow users to keep up with friends, network with colleagues, and share their personal views and observations with others. Previous work describes typical social networking site users as young, extroverted, and technologically savvy. Little research exists, however, on the emerging role of news in the social network environment. With over 500 million global Facebook users, both print and television based media outlets are making concerted efforts to become part of this important and increasingly ubiquitous virtual world. The present study uses a sample of students, faculty, and staff from a large university to investigate the factors that are related to news use on Facebook. Findings indicate that while news use is still a minor component of overall social network site activity, certain key variables, such as gender and life satisfaction, have a significant impact on how Facebook is used for news-related purposes. Future implications for news in the social networking world are presented and discussed.     

Information sharing on social media sites

This study reports on an exploratory survey conducted to investigate the use of social media technologies for sharing information. This paper explores the issue of credibility of the information shared in the context of computer-mediated communication. Four categories of information were explored: sensitive, sensational, political and casual information, across five popular social media technologies: social networking sites, micro-blogging sites, wikis, online forums, and online blogs. One hundred and fourteen active users of social media technologies participated in the study. The exploratory analysis conducted in this study revealed that information producers use different cues to indicate credibility of the information they share on different social media sites. Organizations can leverage findings from this study to improve targeted engagement with their customers. The operationalization of how information credibility is codified by information producers contributes to knowledge in social media research.     

Incidental Exposure,Selective Exposure,and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media

Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two‐wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political information sharing, across different levels of strength of political party affiliation. Our results demonstrate that incidental exposure to counter‐attitudinal information drives stronger partisans to more actively seek out like‐minded political content, which subsequently encourages political information sharing on social media. The results highlight the need to consider both types of political information exposure when modeling citizens' political behavior online.     

The influence of disposition and social ties on trust in new virtual teammates

With the increased presence of social media tools such as LinkedIn and Facebook, social network information is now commonplace. Social media websites prominently display the social distance or so-called “degrees of separation” among users, effectively allowing people to view their shared social ties with others, including prospective teammates they have not met. Through the presentation and manipulation of social network information, this longitudinal experiment investigated whether dispositional and relational variables contribute to “swift trust” among new virtual teammates. Data from 74 participants were collected to test a path analytic model predicting that social ties and propensity to trust influence perceptions of a new teammate’s trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity) as well as the willingness to trust that new teammate when given the opportunity to do so. Path analysis indicated good model fit, but showed no significant evidence that social ties or propensity to trust affect perceived trustworthiness at the initial point of team engagement. Additionally, only one component of perceived trustworthiness (perceived ability) and propensity to trust were found to predict trusting behavior towards a new, unknown, teammate.     

Habit formation in social media consumption: a case of political engagement

This study draw upon the theory of habit formation in consumption from macroeconomics to support the evidence on the existence of habit formation in social media consumption. Treating social media consumption as a form of digital good consumption and using aggregated weekly posts from the Facebook pages of a group of 12 politicians in the cabinet of Singapore, we verified through a non-separable recursive time model that social media consumption habits were developed among this group of politicians. This study further confirms the existence of reciprocity by validating habit formation in the social media consumption of citizens and followers of these politicians’ posts using time aggregated data of ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and ‘comments’. Further, this study shows the relationship between the strength of habit formation in social media consumption of politicians and citizens is positively correlated: the stronger the habit formation, the stronger the social capital reciprocity. Through these measurements, our analysis proved that political engagement in social media is a bi-directional habitual process and the use of a habit formation coefficient as a new parameter to measure ‘reciprocal engagement’ in social media provides a better understanding of the dynamic exchange between users of social media.     

Cities under fire: Crisis communication on home front versus frontline cities' Facebook pages during operation ‘guardian of the walls’

Social media has been widely adopted by local governments during emergencies and crises and its role as a communication platform has been discussed in various studies on natural hazards, pandemics and terror attacks. However, research in the field has not addressed how municipalities use social media to communicate valuable information during armed conflicts and military operations. The current study examined the ways five major cities in Israel used their Facebook pages to connect to their residents during operation ‘Guardian of the Walls' in 2021. We examined the social media usage and the strategies of these cities during the 12 days of the operation. The findings revealed significant differences between cities that are considered as home front versus frontline regions regarding content type and information dissemination strategies. Additionally, differences regarding content types in terms of sentiment and overall rates of engagement were also identified. These findings highlight the need to further investigate local municipalities' usage of social media during armed conflicts concerning the civil population.