As media started to contain the political content, media also began to continually change the modalities of human communication in the political arena. An amount of researchers has been working on this theme for decades.
Especially concerning social media, with the pervasive use of multiple technological tools, social media has changed much, as well as the way it changed political communication. In the last decade, scholars have more and more observed effects of social media use on political behavior. Due to the complexity of social media, this study can be explored from several different dimensions. In this essay, I will summarize three different pieces of research which all examine such effects. Basing on the summary, I will try to make some common conclusions from the findings of these researches.
Dual screen use make users have more engagement in politics
Gil de Zuniga and Liu conducted the research in the aspect of one form of social media use, which is called second or dual screening. They explored the relationship between dual screen use and the way users consume information, discuss public affair issues and engage in political activities.
As for the concept of second screen use, it represents the behavior that users harness two or even more screens at the same time. For instance, users may consume live content on TV, or any other screen, while enriching that experience with a second “screen” to interact with that content (Gil de Zuniga & Liu, 2017).
With such use, users can acquire more political information. Besides, the second screeners tend to have more communications with others about political affairs. As a consequence, with more second screen use, users have a higher level of political expression in social media. The levels of online and offline political participation also increase. However, among different types of political engagement, voting behavior is less likely to be influenced by second screen use.
Besides, Gil de Zuniga and Liu also studied the feature of second screeners. They discovered that young users tend to use the second screen for news and public affairs more than the older user.
Streaming television also leads to such increasing engagement
Different from Gil de Zuniga and Liu, Groshek and Krongard conducted the research in terms of streaming television. While Gil de Zuniga and Liu focus on the users’ behavior of social media, Groshek and Krongard concentrated on the type of social media. They explored the relationship between streaming television and political participation.
As streaming television is becoming more and more personalized, this relatively active and highly individualized form of television use might fundamentally reshape not only the medium but also the agency ascribed to its users and its use in the political arena (Groshek & Krongard, 2016). They did not only focus on traditional cable television but also shed light on personal television, such as Netflix.
In this research, Groshek and Krongard found that more frequent television streaming can lead to more political participation. Moreover, online and offline political participation were highly correlated with one another.
Social media use may also weaken engagement
Chan et al. proceeded the research more specific than Gil de Zuniga and Groshek. They shed light on one typical social media, Weibo which is very popular in China. In the research, they wanted to figure out the relationship between Weibo use and political attitudes.
Chan et al. also found that with more Weibo use, which means social media use, users have increased willingness to express opinions about government and politics, the perception that one has the ability to participate in politics, and feelings that the government is not responsive to the demands of citizens (Chan et al., 2012).
Moreover, they proceeded the research to figure out which motivations of Weibo use can moderate such relationships. Concluded from the data, information motives can strengthen the relationships. By contrast, entertainment motives become a significant factor which can weaken the relationships.
Summary
With more and more use of social media, users can attain more information easily and have more contact with each other. Moreover, with the trend of personalization of social media, the content which users receive become increasingly targeted. As a result, these changes definitely make an impact on social life at many levels. How users engage in politic can be one aspect.
All the researches above made the conclusion that with more use of social media, users will make more engagements in the political aspect. However, such relationships can be superficial. For instance, voting behavior is less likely to be influenced.
Moreover, social media use may not always lead to more engagement. As Chan et al. discovered, entertainment motives can diminish engagement.
In a word, more social media use can result in more political engagement in some way.
Reference
Gil de Zuniga, & Liu. (2017). Second Screening Politics in the Social Media Sphere: Advancing Research on Dual Screen Use in Political Communication with… Journal of Broadcasting & Electronical Media. April 2017.
Groshek, & S. Krongard. (2016). Netflix and Engage? Implications for Streaming Television on Political Participation during the 2016 US Presidential Campaign. Social Sciences. 2016, 5, 65.
Chan, X. Wu, Y. Hao, R. Xi, & T. Jin. (2012). Microblogging, Online Expression,and Political Efficacy Among Young Chinese Citizens: The Moderating Role of Information and Entertainment Needs in the Use of Weibo. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Volume 15, Number 7, 2012