a wnida tronsiakes ‘vito preferanhol voting B (ou friends’ political povticiposiad allows foe {Qreotar Politica) cognition _oimong Anse Wins e Mormally would nor —pavricipors”. 4 BL 1 Tho Wiipliar Shock is Coleutaxad 40 vp ip || votes per swear by cimaRebecca Pineiro ENGW 3308 10/08/2014 Working Draft 1 Question I’m trying to answer: ‘To what extent has social media affected public opinion and promoted political socialization? Introduction The use of the internet has un\loubtedly improved modern life by connecting people, rapidly broadcasting information, And allowing people to participate in society from the comfort of their homes\Mc cifically, membership to social networks have } nurse with virtual friends and participate in -ognize the conveniences the internet has afforded society, oxfe must also question how Whe use of social media has affected public opinion and influenced political socialization, The use vf sociatimedtt by Political entities is Increasingly popular as society moves away from their newspapers and towards thelFBndgets-n the modern age, nearly all political actors utilize social media and networking to propagate information, which lead scholars to question whether this shift has impacted public opinion by influencing political participation, Social Media and its Effect on Political Engagement \ It is important to make the distinction between social media and social networks a) social media is the content shared, whereas social networks are the platforms in which Vi media exists. Social media is an effective content-based tool used by governments, groups, news media, and individuals to spread information to the masses in a relatively cheap and instantaneous manner (Marek 2011). On a social network such as Facebookor Twitter, users create a virtual circle which digitizes their everyday life by following actual friends, family and acquaintances, but also given the opportunity to follow specific interests or groups, such as non-profits, political parties, and politicians (Maarek 2013). Zheng, Selzter, an& C\iuse both terms and call them social capital. Zheng et al. define political participation as any actions taken to directly or indirectly influence the outcome of public policy or the selection of elected officials. According to the authors, social capital and political participation have a positive relationship (Zheng et al. 2010). On a social network such as Facebook or Twitter, user y create a virtual circle which digitize their everyday lives by allowing them to follow ve actual friends, family andacquaintances. Because of this, there is a high level of trust that exists with receiving information thrpugh this medium that does not exist through mass media and broadcast news (#heng-etal, 2010). Consequentially, the relationship between associations and political participation is in effect a virtuous circle: once one rr friend becomes politically active on social networks, it creates a ne and multiplies through said person's friends, their friends and so on (Zhang et 2). 2010). Nathaniel Swigger argues that although all networks are different, they all share ‘an aspect in common which is their allowance and encouragement of self-publicizing and seeking out the publications of others. Individuals are welcomed to the site with a prompt allowing them to share their personal details and opinions in a way which was \j \ * id non-existent and outside of the norm a decade ago (Swigger 2013). Swigger’s study a Yu found that the self-publicizing feature reflectéq an individual's value of their freedom of : ¥C expression, which lent itself to political participation whether or not the person was, NJ ‘J - predisposed to engage in political discourse. People self-publicize opinions about