Do Personal and Entertainment Facebook Uses Faciliate or Hinder Political Participation? Exploring Mediating Role of Political Communication

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Political Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The extent to which non-political social media practices relate to political engagement has been debated in recent scholarship. Some posit a “contrast” model that sees personal interest as incompatible with civic virtue; others propose an “extension” model that perceives political life as an extended field of personal life. To shed light on this debate, this study focuses on Facebook, the most popular social media site in the United States, to investigate whether and how the seemingly non-political Facebook uses (i.e., personal and entertainment uses) relate to political participation among a diverse online sample of American adults. Results show that personal and entertainment Facebook uses are positively related to political participation only indirectly, through political communication in the form of political expression on the site and/or political discussion in offline settings. Moreover, personal and entertainment Facebook uses are differentially associated with political discussion offline and political participation. Overall, findings of the study help clarify the underlying processes by which these uses contribute to political participation and the distinctions between the two types of non-political Facebook uses.

Author

• Rebecca Ping Yu, National Chiao Tung U