From observation on social media to offline political participation: The social media affordances approach. (December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Dam Hee; Ellison, Nicole B.
• Is Part Of: New media & society. Volume 24:Number 12(2022)
• Page Start: 2614
• Page End: 2634
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Subjects: Affordances -- citizenship norms -- political homogeneity -- political participation -- social media; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Internet -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/1461444821998346
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-4448

Abstract

Building on prior studies suggesting that social media can facilitate offline political participation, this study seeks to clarify the mechanism behind this link. Social media may encourage social learning of political engagement due to their unique affordances such as visibility (i.e. once-invisible political activities by others are now visible on social media feeds). By analyzing a two-wave survey conducted before the 2016 presidential election in the United States, this study tests a theoretical model in which observation of others' political activities on social media inspires users themselves to model similar political behaviors, which foster offline political participation. Autoregressive models show that the link between political observation and activities on social media is stronger among users surrounded with similar others and politically homogeneous networks. The results highlight the need to cultivate engaged citizenship norms for individuals' political activities on social media to be carried over to participation beyond the realm of social media.