The Role of Social Media as a Source of Political Information and Perception of Insecurity

• In Event: Media and social construction of crime I

Abstract

Traditional media, and more recently social media, have become key spaces for political confrontation, resulting from the ideological polarization that has been affecting more societies for years. Along with misinformation and fake news, this polarization contributes to shaping public perceptions, bringing the crisis of liberal democracies into focus. In this context, discussions on politics and crime on social media, often led by more prominent users such as political leaders, tend to focus on political rather than legal issues, highlighting a clash between ideologically opposed groups. The existing literature suggests that exposure to social media content may exacerbate citizens' perception of insecurity. Given this, we aim to explore whether there is a relationship between social media information and perceptions of insecurity, examining if there are differences across continents and identifying which sociodemographic and information access factors influence perceptions of insecurity. The objective is to identify behavioral patterns associated with higher levels of insecurity and concern, exploring their connection to information access through both traditional and digital media. To this end, we utilized data from the Seventh Wave of the World Values Survey (WVS), conducted from 2017 to 2022, covering 77 countries across all continents. Statistical analyses were performed, including means and standard deviations, frequencies, correlations, linear regression with sociodemographic control factors, and decision trees to establish continental differences in insecurity. Preliminary findings indicate that sociodemographic factors related to types of information access impact users' sense of insecurity; there are differences among continents regarding perceptions of insecurity and types of information access; and that users who access information exclusively through traditional media perceive less insecurity than those who access it via digital or mixed media.

Authors

• María del Carmen Segura Cuenca, Profesora Área de Ciencia Política y de la Administración Departamento de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, investigadora Centro CRÍMINA

• Nieves Erades Perez, Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Spain)