A framework for understanding citizens’ political participation in social media

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how the use of social media by citizens has impacted the traditional conceptualization and operationalization of political participation in the society. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on Teorell et al.’s (2007) classification of political participation which is modified to suit the current context of social media. The authors classified 15,460 tweets along three parameters suggested in the framework with help of supervised text classification algorithms. Findings The analysis reveals that Activism is the most prominent form of political participation undertaken by people on Twitter. Other activities that were undertaken include Formal Political participation and Consumer participation. The analysis also reveals that identity of participant does not play a classifying role as expected from the theoretical framework. It was found that the social media as a platform facilitates new forms of participation which are not feasible offline. Research limitations/implications The current work considers only the microblogging platform of Twitter as the data source. For a more comprehensive insight, analysis of other social media platforms is also required. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few analyses where such a large database covering multiple social media events has been created and analysed using supervised text classification algorithms. A large proportion of previous studies on social media have been based on case study and have limited analysis to only a particular event on social media. Although there exist a few works that have studied a vast and varied collection of social media data (Gaby and Caren, 2012; Shirazi, 2013; Rane and Salem, 2012), such efforts are few in number. This study aims to add to that stream of work where a wider and more generalized set of social media data is studied.

Do social networking sites promote life satisfaction? The explanation from an online and offline social capital transformation

“…Research, as well as intuition, suggests that SNSs usage can affect users' personal life and work (Li et al , 2020; Verduyn et al , 2017; Erfani and Abedin, 2018). This technology not only acts as the pipe of information but communities for participation (Pandey et al , 2019), where users can build long-term and reciprocal relationships with acquaintances and even strangers and then acquire friendships and emotional support, perform social integration, improve self-esteem, satisfy individuals' needs for disclosure and experience positive affect (Ko and Kuo, 2009; Bateman et al , 2011; Nabi et al , 2013; Wang et al ., 2014, 2018). Additionally, SNSs are instrumental tools and help to improve users' health conditions by gathering health knowledge such as sexual health, drug use and mental health, which are difficult to discuss with others (Plaisime et al , 2020).…”

“…bonding and bridging types) is transferred into offline SC in the context of online games (Zhong, 2011; Trepte et al , 2012) and Twitter (Ye et al , 2012). Studies on the impact of technology on political participation also showed the evolution of many political movements from the Internet to offline (Pandey et al , 2019). However, the transformation directions between online and offline SC in the context of SNSs may be more complex (Manago et al , 2012).…”

From connective actions in social movements to offline collective actions: an individual level perspective

“…In contrast to these perspectives, there is also some evidence suggesting that lowthreshold connective actions on SM may inhibit or substitute offline CA participation under certain conditions (Morozov, 2011;Wilkins et al, 2019). Low-threshold actions termed as "slacktivist" or "lazy" connective actions, such as liking a comment on Facebook or posting a hashtag on Twitter (Pandey et al, 2019;Schumann and Klein, 2015), may replace offline elements of political participation and consequently may have adverse consequences for groups aiming at achieving a collective purpose. This seems to apply in particular when individuals believe that their online contributions are substantial enough to foster the group's success (Schumann and Klein, 2015).…”

“…This study focusses on social movements as "purposive collective actions whose outcome, in victory or defeat, transforms the values and institutions of society" (Castells, 2004, p. 3). Current research emphasises that SM have become important instruments for people to communicate and facilitate such collective actions (Pandey et al, 2019). This in particular holds true for the uprisings in Egypt, where a large disparate network of individuals used SM platforms to create and consume information relevant to the movements (Harindranath et al, 2015;Maghrabi and Salam, 2013).…”

“…This study focusses on social movements as “purposive collective actions whose outcome, in victory or defeat, transforms the values and institutions of society” (Castells, 2004, p. 3). Current research emphasises that SM have become important instruments for people to communicate and facilitate such collective actions (Pandey et al. , 2019).…”