Jada Lawson
Professor Andrews
Political Psychology
12 November 2019
The Correlation Between Social Media and Political Engagement
IntroductionThere is no doubt that social media has become a very large and influential aspect of society. The use of social media is becoming a feature of political and civic engagement for many individuals.Online activities are also transforming young people’s engagement with politics. In general, the Internet (social media) has become a dominant force when it comes to how campaign funds are raised, information is accessed, perspectives are shared and discussed, and individuals are mobilized to act politically.
With the new forms of technology(i.e. social media)that citizens have access to, does it provide an opportunity for more citizens to participate in our democracy? Social media can be a challenging concept to define, since there are different arguments about what counts as social media. For this assignment, social media will be defined as any websites or applications that we can use to receive political information (twitter, instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Facebook,etc.).
I personally, spend a lot of time on social media, and I have seen a rise in the amount of youth interested in political affairs. Since I know how much social media is used in most of our daily lives, a question came up that I wanted an answer to: Does social media have an influence on an individual’s political involvement? That question will be the main focus of this research.
Hypothesis: Even though political engagement is very high on social media, I predict that it will not have much of an influence on an individual’s political involvement whether they be a college student or an adult.
Review of literatureThere is considerable concern about the role that social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, play in promoting misperceptions during political campaigns. These technologies are widely used. Social media has become a part of our daily lives and we could make the argument that young people are at the helm of this shift in society. People seem to assume that young people(18-24)use social media for everything, but would that be true when it comes to how they get their political news and would that then influence this age group to vote.In Who Votes? By Wolfinger and Rosenstone, 18-24 year olds had one of the lowest voter turnouts out of all the different age groups except for the 79+ age group, but social media should have an effect on this particular age group political participation (Wolfinger).
Method
For my method, at first I had trouble figuring out how I wanted to conduct the survey, and what age(s) group I wanted to target. I knew for a fact, my main target group is college students ranging from the ages 18-24. After getting some pointers from my professor, it was brought to my attention that I could look at two completely different age groups and compare the differences. Professor Andrews then connected me with her 80 year old mother, Gisela. Professor Andrews told me Gisela was very much interactive on Facebook and has friends who also use Facebook. I then shared my survey with Gisela so she could post it on her page, and her friends could take the survey as well. This allowed me to reach another demographic. I think it will be interesting to see if there are any significant similarities or differences between the age groups. My goal was to get at least 30 respondents.
At first I didn’t know if I wanted to create an online survey, or a physical printed out survey that I could hand out to people. I eventually went with creating a survey on surveymonkey.com. I chose to do that since I felt it would be easier for me to reach people beyond my own campus with a link I could send out.
When it came to getting individuals to take the survey, at NDNU, I simply wrote the survey link on the whiteboard and my classmates who are willing to take the survey took it. I did this for two classes. Even though everyone was willing to take it, the classes I surveyed are very small classes. Due to that, I knew it was going to be challenging trying to reach my 30 respondent goal. I sent the link to my sorority group chat along with some of my other friends in college who attend other universities. In the end, the survey received 43 respondents. I was happy I exceeded my goal.
Copy of survey
Social media and political behavior
Hello, My name is Jada Lawson and I am conducting some research for my political psychology class regarding the correlation between social media and political involvement. I am asking for your voluntary participation. Your information provided is confidential and will not be posted online
1. What is your age?
18-24
25-35
36-45
46-55
56-65
66-75
75 and up
2. Do you post your accomplishments on social media?
Yes
No
Sometimes
3. Do you “like” or promote material related to political/social issues that others have posted?
Yes
No
Sometimes
4. Do you encourage others to vote on your social media platforms? w
Yes
No
5. Do you post your own thoughts or comments on political/social issues?
Yes
No
Sometimes
6. Do you repost content related to political/social issues?
Yes
No
Sometimes
7. Do you follow any elected officials, candidates for office, or other political figures ?
Yes
No
8. Do you post links to political articles for others to read?
Yes
No
9. Do you belong to a group that is engaged in social/political issues or working to advocate a cause?
Yes
No
10. What is your gender?
male
female
non-binary
prefer not to answer
Results
Analysis A significant amount of the participants were female and between the ages of 18-24. In the future, I need to insure I get an even spread of gender, and a comparable amount of participants in the different age groups. I planned on comparing 18-24 with possible 75& up, it part of the reason that didn’t happen is due to the fact I sent the survey out a bit late to that age group. It is clear from the results that social media is used for other purposes other than politics, considering about 80% of the participants stated they post their accomplishments. I also noted that people were more likely to repost other people’s political opinions than post their own. I assume this is because people are more comfortable posting an opinion like that, that has some support, meaning other people agree with them. It’s harder to post your own views without the comfort of knowing someone will back you up or agree with you. Another result that stuck out to me was the percentage of participants that do not encourage others to vote, or post links to political articles for others to read. This could have a lot to do with individuals wanting to keep their political views separate from the social media. I know for a fact I have friends with opposing political views, but just to avoid arguing or disagreements, politics are kept separate. One thing I want to keep in mind is that just because an individual doesn’t post on social media about their political opinions, does not mean they are not aware or involved in politics. Again, this could just mean they want to use social media for purposes that have nothing to do with politics.
Overall, I do want to accept my hypothesis that even though political engagement is very high on social media, my results have shown that it does not have much of an influence on an individual’s political involvement.
For the future, there are some errors I want to make sure I don’t repeat. If I’m going to be looking at two different age demographics, I have to make sure I have enough respondents for each age group. For this research, 98% of my respondents were a part of one age group, so I wasn’t able to make the comparisons I intended to make. I also need to make sure I send my survey out to people in enough time for them to take it. I sent my survey out to professors mom the day I needed the results, so I am positive this is why I didn’t have many people in the 75&up group take it. So in the future, aiming for a week or so in advance. I also want to come up with more questions that can explore causation or influence.
ConclusionIn conclusion, I will accept my hypothesis stating even though political engagement is very high on social media, it will not have much of an influence on an individual’s political involvement whether they be a college student or an adult.My results reveal no coordination between use of social media and political engagement.
Works CitedRosenstone, Steven J. Hansen, John Mark.Mobilization, participation, and democracy in America.MacmillanPublishing Company, 1993
WOLFINGER, RAYMOND E., and STEVEN J. ROSENSTONE. Who Votes? Yale University Press, 1980. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32bffz.
