New Media and the Propensity to Participate in Protests in the United States (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Rallies, Protests, and Mobilization

Abstract

What causes the United States citizens to become actively engaged in political participation? What makes some more likely to participate in political demonstrations or protest marches than others?
Integrating rational choice theory and post-materialism with the perspective of the media as agenda-setter, this paper investigates how the new media affect citizens’ political participation across 50 states. We follow Chong’s (1991) theory that, under conditions of low cost, high expressive benefits, and high likelihood of critical mass, collective action can turn a prisoner’s dilemma game into a coordination game. Extending this theory to the contemporary context, we argue that the prevalence of new media channels enables those conditions and facilitates collective action. Along the way, we expect post-materialism to have a significant impact on whether to attend demonstrations and/or join strikes. Both as consumers and producers within the new media environment, people can easily express and share their post-materialistic attitudes with others, thus increasing the likelihood of collective action (and as an outcome, their political participation).
Using both survey and aggregate data, we specify multilevel models to estimate the effects of new media use and penetration on the propensity to participate in political actions. At the individual level, we examine the effects of post-materialism, education, political interest, and interpersonal communication. The strength of new media effects may vary by mode; therefore, we hypothesize that the difference in the effect comes from whether people more frequently use mobile phones, the Internet, or social media (Facebook, Twitter).

Authors

• Yul Min Park, University of Texas at Austin

• Tse-min Lin, University of Texas, Austin