From Online Disagreement to Offline Action: How Diverse Motivations for Using Social Media Can Increase Political Information Sharing and Catalyze Offline Political Participation

• In Event: Social Media, Political Participation, and Engagement

Abstract

Amidst growing concerns over the contentious tenor of online political discourse, scholars have begun to recognize that the social contexts and affordances provided by social media may present indirect pathways from online political expression to offline political participation. Less work has addressed how the motivations of social media users might influence such dynamics. We use two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States to test the possibility that online cross-cutting political discussion can indirectly lead to offline political participation, through the influence of social media political information sharing. We also test how specific motivations for using social media (political engagement, relationship maintenance, self-promotion) moderate the amount users share political information on social media when engaged in conversations involving political disagreement. Our findings advance one route from online political disagreement to offline political action through political information sharing, which can impact both politically and non-politically motivated social media users.

Authors

• Daniel Lane, U of Michigan

• Dam Hee Kim, U of Michigan

• Slgi Sage Lee, U of Michigan

• Brian E Weeks, U of Michigan

• Nojin Kwak, University of Michigan