Full length articleThe relationship between passive and active non-political social media use and political expression on Facebook and Twitter
Introduction
From the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movement to the Facebook campaign that led to millions of people changing their Facebook profiles to support gay rights, social media such as Facebook and Twitter have become increasingly important platforms that enable users to express their views. Following these developments, substantial research has explored the ways in which informational or political uses of social media relate to political participation (e.g., Gil de Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela, 2012). Current research suggests that expressing political views is an important pathway to political participation beyond the web (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2014, Vaccari et al., 2015).
However, using social media for informational or political purposes is less widespread than coverage of social media's role in major political events might suggest. Recent Pew Research Center data shows that about 30% of US adults report getting news from Facebook, and that 78% of these individuals are exposed to that news only incidentally—meaning they are on social media for other reasons (Matsa & Michell, 2014). Most people use social media to gratify social needs and pursue entertainment interests, rather than to access news or to pursue political ends explicitly or deliberately (e.g., Glynn, Huge, & Hoffman, 2012). Yet, little is known about whether (and, if so, how) such everyday, non-political use of social media—that is, use characterized by personal-oriented entertainment and socializing activities—is related to political behaviors on such sites.
Alongside the rise of social media, a theoretical framework has emerged that posits that mundane, non-political practices on networked digital media platforms can cultivate civic bonds and collective identity, thus serving as the first step toward political engagement (Bakardjieva, 2009, Dahlgren, 2009). This study draws on this theoretical view and further distinguishes between non-political social media use that is “passive” (i.e., consuming content) versus “active” (i.e., producing content) based on prior work (Burke et al., 2011, Burke et al., 2010) in order to understand how non-political activities relate to political behaviors on the sites. In particular, it is hypothesized that NPA (non-political, active) use that cultivates social bonds (Ellison, Vitak, Gray, & Lampe, 2014) may foster a sense of political efficacy among users, which, in turn, faciliates political expression when opportunities arise. Conversely, these interaction-based experiences may be absent from NPP (non-political, passive) use.
Overall, this study advances existing literature on social media and political engagement by: (1) categorizing social media use as either passive consumption or active production in order to examine how forms of non-political use relates to political expression on social media; (2) examining the possible intervening role of political efficacy in the relationship between NPA use and political expression, thus further specifying the possible pathway from non-political social media use to political engagement; and (3) using two separate adult samples of Facebook and Twitter users to identify consistent patterns of results across the two sites, which can help to advance theory building regarding the uses and effects of social media.
Section snippets
Theoretical relationships between non-political and political social media use: differentiating non-political social media use into passive and active forms
The advent of social media has coincided with an important shift in conceptualizations of citizenship, moving from a “contrast” model that sees the personal and the political as two separate domains (e.g., Shah, Kwak, & Holbert, 2001), to an “extension” model that identifies forms of political engagement in the mundane activities of everyday life (e.g., Bakardjieva, 2009, Dahlgren, 2009). Over the past decade, one prominent line of research on digital democracy has employed a “uses and
Political expression on social media
Before discussing how NPP and NPA use relate to political expression on social media, it is essential to understand the role of political expression in political participation processes and how characteristics of social media may shape political expression therein. Prior work suggests that political expression—the act of expressing political beliefs—on social media is a precursor to other forms of political participation (e.g., Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2014). As social media allow expressed ideas
Sample
The online survey was conducted in August 2014, using a convenient sample of adult Americans (aged 18 years and older), recruited by Qualtrics. Participants were invited to participate in the study in exchange for payments via various methods, such as web-banners, website referrals, and email invitation. The sample was comprised of two groups of participants: 727 participants who completed Facebook-use questionnaires and 633 participants who completed Twitter-use questionnaires. The median age (
Results
The first hypothesis (H1) examines relationships between NPA use and political expression on social media. As expected in H1 (see Table 2, Models 2 and 4), results indicate that NPA social media use is positively related to political expression on social media. The standardized coefficients are comparable across Facebook (β = .32, p < .001) and Twitter users (β = .30, p < .001). In contrast, as shown in Table 2, Models 1 and 3, NPP use is not significantly related to political expression on
Discussion
In contrast to prior research that gave relatively little weight to the political benefits of everyday, non-political use of social technology, more recent scholarship has begun to emphasize the influence of seemingly “personal” activities on political engagement (e.g., Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2014). Extending this line of work, this study examines how non-political social media use is related to expression of political views across Facebook and Twitter. The findings presented here provide
Conclusion
Notwithstanding these limitations, this study is an important step in investigating how passive and active forms of non-political social media use are related to political expression on such sites. Using a comparative approach, results of Facebook and Twitter consistently suggest that only NPA use is positively related to political expression, and this relationship is partially explained by political efficacy. Taken together, these findings provide some support for the theoretical viewpoint
Acknowledgment
The study was funded by the Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan and Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant, University of Michigan.
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