Running head: RESEARCH PAPER 1

Research Paper

Name

Institutions
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Research question: What are the public's attitudes toward the use of social media in

politics?

Abstract

The research study was trying to track the examination whether social media use could be a

source of political effects, also examining both positive/negative affects and discrete negative

emotions. In this case. It finds civic and political participation were triggered by different effects,

basically it proposes a mediation and moderation mode. The researchers postulated the study to

establish three factors which are: (1) Social expressions and entertainment expressions that an

individual identifies himself or herself with correlated positively with the political views of the

individual. (2) The social appearance of an individual had a significant relationship with the

political views that they will eventually discuss and, (3) the purpose of politics has an

insignificant impact on the social and entertainment expressions.

Purpose of the study

The researcher was trying to find an accurate relationship between mobile social “WeChat” uses

and the satisfaction of reaching a higher level to approach, online political discussion, and

political efficacy among college students in China

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Hypotheses

Some of the assumptions the researchers made include; the expressions one made on Facebook is

significantly related with the political expression that the said individual will make on Facebook.

The information about entertainment that is posted on Facebook had a direct impact on political

contributions on Facebook and that the interactions on Facebook influenced the views one will

discuss face to face with friends and family about politics. Further, the investigators came up

with research questions that included; what were the implications of the use of Facebook on

matters entertainment and politics? And was there a relationship between political interests

interacted on Facebook and social interactions led to political participation?

H1a: Intensity of WeChat usage is positively related to the online political discussion about

government and political affairs. H2a: Motivations of information in WeChat usage is positively

associated with a discussion about government and politics. H1:” A politician’s disclosures on

social media heighten likability as compared with impersonal posts that promote his or her public

activities. Such effects are more pronounced for a male than a female politician”. H2:” A

politician’s disclosures (vs. impersonal posts) on social media lower perceived competence for a

female politician, but heighten it for a male politician.” H3: “A politician’s disclosures (vs.

impersonal posts) on social media heighten (a) likability and (b) perceived competence,

especially among those who consider social media more appropriate for fulfilling interpersonal

goals”.
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Population and participants

This study involves students from China with age of 18 years old or order. Thus a total of 282

respondents were used mainly, including gender, age, education, and annual household income.

Yes, they did an analyzed survey of university students in Guangzhou, China, conducted in

November 2014. Ten universities located in a “university town” an area developed by the city

government to host the major universities in the city –were included in the study (Eun-Ju Lee,

2018). Since basically all students at the universities lived in dormitories, dorm rooms were used

as the sampling unit. This study was in a university in China. It participates younger with

significant online network involvement connection with more activists via social media that

where it leads younger age into civic participation. This research includes age/ gender/ and

specific social environments such as living a big city or a small hometown. The study placed 897

participants to complete the survey. How many participants took part in the study?

Based on gender, location, and target sample size for each university, a total of 225 dorm rooms

– as there are four students in each room – were chosen based on systematic sampling. Research

assistants visited the selected places and distributed the questionnaires. All students in the room

were included as respondents. They filled out the questionnaires by themselves, and the

assistants collected the completed questionnaires at a later of time. If no student was at the dorm

during the visit, the research assistants visited the next dorm room as a replacement. In the end, a

total of 897 valid responses were obtained with a response rate higher than 90% (Rebecca Ping

Yu, Yu Won Oh, 2018). All respondents were assured that their answers are anonymous. The

research was designed to give an approach of two cases, in the first case, a total of 240

participants from the U.S who included 116 men with a mean age of 34.86, who were Facebook
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users while in the second case which was conducted in South Korea with a total of 258 Twitter

users, men participants being 131 with the mean age of 36.31.

Data

The research used data from an online survey conducted through queries. Americans who are 18

years and above took part in the study with the female participants being the majority at 64% and

the males 36%. A total of 727 participants who identified themselves as Facebook users took

part. The average age for the subjects was 46.06.

In the first case, a mock-up Facebook page created with a total of 11 posts which

the participants were required to respond to in the following aspects:

Personal messages concerning the politician’s life

a) Happy 25th Anniversary! Thank you, Pat, for staying by me all these years.

#MarriageBliss #FamilyLove.

b) “My daughter convinced me to switch to a treadmill desk at my office. I’m going to

live forever

Impersonal Posts
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a) Today I visited the CDC to see how America is tackling adolescent obesity.

b) “Preventing child abuse is everyone’s responsibility. Visit http://GIO.FD/SlnHr1 and

pledge to help stop the abuse!”

The second case had the same variables, but a Twitter mock-up page was displayed, and the

participants were required to respond to their political ideology and gender orientation.

H1: Social media PAC relates to stronger positive affect toward government and society.

H2: Social media PAC relates to weaker negative affect toward government and society.

“This study finds that, under China’s networked authoritarianism, political communication via

social media is related to positive affects toward the government and society, while the

connection with activists via social media is related to negative effect. Positive and negative

effects have a different impact on different types of participation. Negative effects strengthen the

connection between social media use and participation. The roles of three discrete negative

emotions – anger, anxiety, and fear – are also explored".

Variables

The second case had the same variables, but a Twitter mock-up page was

displayed, and the participants were required to respond to their political ideology and
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gender orientation. They found it different environment and societies impact people

thoughts toward reality.

Methodology

This study was based on an online survey it was posted online as well, in the social networking

sites among Chinese students for two weeks through the WeChat platform. Likewise, it had a

pop link that takes users to a questionnaire form to fill in.

The study used a set of questionnaires to gather its information. On a scale of 1 to

5 where one is never and five very frequently, the participants answered the following

questions:

Types of nonpolitical expressive political Facebook use:

a) How often do you;

1)Like posts?

2)Comment on posts?

3)Post or share on Facebook?

b) Personal life;
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1)Nature of work

2)Schooling

3)Relationships or family

C) Entertainment Interests;

1) Sports

2) Movies

3) Music or food

Findings

The findings of the study confirmed the hypotheses and showed that personal posts led to

an increase of popularity of the politicians as compared to political statements. Further, personal

views from male increased their political demand more than female politicians. On the other

hand, questions based on sex and competence showed men receiving more likes than women, but

the difference was not of much distinction. The results generally favored the male politicians in

the political intent (Gan, C. Lee, F.& Li, 2017). The study also wanted to establish what could be

more recognized by individuals if a female politician posted personal and impersonal

information of Facebook, the results showed that posts that are personal from women politicians

were identified easily and received more interactions than those that were politically based. The
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findings from the second case to some extent showed some similarity with those of model one,

where the personal tweets from male candidates increased the intent for them voted for as

compared to female candidates. However, some mixed results observed in some instances where

personal Tweets increased their plan on being proposed. Lastly, on the test of Tweet type and its

effect on sex and political affiliation, the study could not establish any difference between male

and female politicians.

The investigators first wanted to confirm the suitability of the 5-scale factor they could employ

in the measurement of variables; they found out that the scale could yield the best results relating

to the hypotheses and the research questions. Further, the comparison of the 5-scale model and

the models used in the previous studies indicated that the 5-scale model was better and could

give better results than the findings from the initial reviews.

The findings of the study supported the hypotheses that; the expressions one made on Facebook

is significantly related to the political speech that the said individual will make on Facebook

(Pang, 2018,). The information about entertainment that is posted on Facebook had a direct

impact on political contributions on Facebook and that the interactions on Facebook influenced

the views one will discuss face to face with friends and family about politics. Further, the

research found out that the activities and the contributions one made online were translated to

what the person discussed out of the platform. However, the entertainment activities one engaged

in while on Facebook did not have any impact politically outside Facebook.

Also, the study looked at the relationship between political discussions on Facebook and outside

the platform and if they influenced political involvements. On this, the results indicated a direct

and affirmative influence of the activities on politics and political affiliations which backed their
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third and fourth hypotheses. Finally, the findings indicated that the expression one held on

Facebook did not change the shape of politics.

The study found that there an existence of engagement using mobile device platforms social

media and online political discussion. Since recently china’s government has become more

flexible giving accessibility to use some mobile applications. Such as WeChat, the public find it

a perfect space for open-minded users to discuss the political topic. Thereby, Chinese citizens

speak out for their deeds freely. Thus, it had made an impact of lowering costs. On the other

hand, individual behavior influences political efficacy that led to making an individual speak

their mind which possibly can determine citizens to allow individuals to speak for their problems

which can be inside or outside the country.

Interpretation of findings

The finding in this research attempts that the use of mobile phone and social media have

a practical impact on politics. Due to the importance of information, students who use WeChat

more often they found to be more effective and engaged with political issues unlike students who

use the platform to play online games, watch movies, and follow the fun that led those users to

have less attention and information about political issues and current affair without being aware

(Lee, Oh, Lee, & Kim, 2018).). Therefore, this study may help students what they should get

their attention to and what question themselves what could be useful and essential to the Chinese

citizenship. The study found that there an existence of engagement using mobile device

platforms social media and online political discussion. Since recently china’s government has
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become more flexible giving accessibility to use some mobile applications. Such as WeChat, the

public find it a perfect space for open-minded users to discuss the political topic. Thereby,

Chinese citizens speak out for their deeds freely (Pang, H. (2018,). Thus, it had made an impact

of lowering costs. On the other hand, individual behavior influences political efficacy that led to

making an individual speak their mind which possibly can determine citizens to allow

individuals to speak for their problems which can be inside or outside the country.

Recommendations

Investigators make suggestions that the users of Facebook, who initial studies showed that did

not take part in politics fully, can be encouraged by civic educators to express their views on the

platform and hence contribute to the political affairs of the country. However, they also, alluding

to the limitations of the research which include the use of cross-sectional that cannot be relied

upon entirely to state the directions the users of Facebook can take politically, and so they

suggest the use of longitudinal data to affirm these findings(Pang, HuaIs, 2018).

Suggestions are also made for future investigators to include personal characteristics of

individuals and how they relate their expression on Facebook and face to face interactions

arguing that some other people can only express their political opinions in a different set up other

than on Facebook(Pang, HuaIs, 2018). Self-report data is another limitation observed in the

study, which do not give room for more probing to capture the more exceptional details of the

study. For this reason, the investigators suggest the use of methods that measure the actual trait

of an individual in future endeavors.

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Finally, the study only considered the use of Facebook among users in America which in essence

is a limiting factor in that other platforms were left out. The issue of affordability and access was

also not included in the study (Pang, HuaIs, 2018). This could have led to missing of some vital

information since different people have a liking and a dislike for some platforms. So in future

endeavors, efforts should be made to include other sites in the survey and spread the focus to

other countries to capture the similarities and differences. Equally, outcomes pointing to political

affiliation and participation should be investigated, for instance, the factors of access,

affordability and personal traits to be incorporated in the study to widen the scope and give

findings that reflect the true nature of associations on the social network platforms and their

influence on political outcomes.

Conclusions

The study uses tables and numbers to present its results and has hypotheses which are: This study

found that communication via social media is positively related to positive affect toward the

government and society. Nevertheless, connection with activists via social media links to

negative affect toward the government and society. Therefore, having different background

placed a part in this study hence they found that it always a positive relationship between

participants in social media and government unless when a third party becomes involved in

social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In turn, to interrupt the relationship

between society and the government by implementing destroyed systems that implants, anger

anxiety, and fear into public which transform their behavior toward social media and politics.

This study is only one step toward developing a more comprehensive and systematic

understanding of political effect in social media. A couple of limitations of the study need to be
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acknowledged. First, the sample is restricted to university students in an urban city in China. The

generalizability of the findings to the whole population needs to be further confirmed. Second,

the study employs a cross-sectional survey. Hence the causality involved in the relationship is

not demonstrated. But it should be noted that the findings would be no less meaningful if the

political effect is what drives social media use – in this case, it would still be essential for us to

take impact into account when understanding the character and implications of social media in

politics. Overall, the findings bring credence to our contention that social media can be active

channels for the expression and diffusion of social and political effect, and such political

influence could have consequences on people’s attitudes and behavior.

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References

Eun-Ju Lee, Soo Youn Oh, Jihye Lee, and Hyun Suk Kim. (, 2018).Up Close and Personal on

Social Media: When Do Politicians’ Disclosures Enhance Vote Intention?

Gan, C. Lee, F.& Li, Y. (2017, November).Social media use, political affect, and participation

among university students in urban China. Telematics and Informatics 34(7), 936-947.

do: 10.1016/j.tele.2017.04.002

Lee, E., Oh, S., Lee, J., & Kim, H. (2018). Up Close and Personal on Social Media: When Do

Politicians’ Disclosures Enhance Vote Intention?. Journalism & Mass Communication

Quarterly, 95(2), 381-403. doi: 10.1177/1077699018754911

Pang, H. (2018, August) Is mobile app a new political discussion platform? An empirical study

of WeChat use on college students’ political discussion and political efficacy.PLoS ONE.

8/9/2018, Vol. 13 Issue 8, p1-16. 16p.doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202244

Pang, HuaIs (08/09/2018. )mobile app a new political discussion platform? An empirical study

of WeChat use on college students’ political discussion and political efficacy.

Rebecca Ping Yu, Yu Won Oh. (2018).Social media and expressive citizenship: Understanding

the relationships between social and entertainment expression on Facebook and political

participation.
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Yu, R., & Oh, Y. (2018). Social media and expressive citizenship: Understanding the

relationships between social and entertainment expression on Facebook and political

participation. Telematics And Informatics, 35(8), 2299-2311. doi:

10.1016/j.tele.2018.09.010