Do people learn about politics on social media? A meta-analysis of 76 studies

Abstract

Citizens turn increasingly to social media to get their political information. However, it is currently unclear whether using these platforms actually makes them more politically knowledgeable. While some researchers claim that social media play a critical role in the learning of political information within the modern media environment, others posit that the great potential for learning about politics on social media is rarely fulfilled. The current study tests which of these conflicting theoretical claims is supported by the existing empirical literature. A preregistered meta-analysis of 76 studies (N = 442,136) reveals no evidence of any political learning on social media in observational studies, and statistically significant but substantively small increases in knowledge in experiments. These small-to-nonexistent knowledge gains are observed across social media platforms, types of knowledge, countries, and periods. Our findings suggest that the contribution of social media toward a more politically informed citizenry is minimal.

How Incidental and Intentional News Exposure in Social Media Relate to Political Knowledge and Voting Intentions

“…General social media news use, incidental news exposure and active political discussion are negatively associated with objective knowledge. However, consistent with a recent meta-LINKING SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS USE, KNOWLEDGE AND VOTING INTENTIONS study, active news exposure lacks any relation with objective knowledge (Amsalem & Zoizner, 2022). This indicates that the operationalization of social media news use might explain why some studies find a negative association between social media news use and objective knowledge, while others find none (Amsalem & Zoizner, 2022;Van Aelst et al, 2022).…”

“…However, consistent with a recent meta-LINKING SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS USE, KNOWLEDGE AND VOTING INTENTIONS study, active news exposure lacks any relation with objective knowledge (Amsalem & Zoizner, 2022). This indicates that the operationalization of social media news use might explain why some studies find a negative association between social media news use and objective knowledge, while others find none (Amsalem & Zoizner, 2022;Van Aelst et al, 2022). The reasons discussed by Amsalem and Zoizner (2022) for absent learning effects on social media include algorithms, which can limit people's exposure to novel information (Pariser, 2011), information overload (van Erkel & Van Aelst, 2021 and misinformation (Lee & Xenos, 2019).…”

“…With the rise of social media, studies have investigated whether news use on social media can lead to objective knowledge gains as it did on traditional media (Cho et al, 2009;Eveland, 2001;Sotirovic & McLeod, 2001). While some studies found positive (Anspach et al, 2019;Weeks et al, 2021) and others found negative effects (Van Aelst et al, 2022), a recent meta-study detected no effect for social media use on objective political knowledge (Amsalem & Zoizner, 2022).…”

“…While objective knowledge can inform one's voting decision (Lee & Matsuo, 2018;Smets & van Ham, 2013), social media appears to be the wrong platform to provide this knowledge (Amsalem & Zoizner, 2022;. Instead, general social media news use fosters subjective knowledge, which in turn could be associated not only with broad political participation Schneider et al, 2016;Yamamoto et al, 2018) but also with voter turnout (Kaid et al, 2007;Lee & Matsuo, 2018).…”

“…This indicates that the operationalization of social media news use might explain why some studies find a negative association between social media news use and objective knowledge, while others find none (Amsalem & Zoizner, 2022;Van Aelst et al, 2022). The reasons discussed by Amsalem and Zoizner (2022) for absent learning effects on social media include algorithms, which can limit people's exposure to novel information (Pariser, 2011), information overload (van Erkel & Van Aelst, 2021 and misinformation (Lee & Xenos, 2019). All of the above are especially relevant for the incidental encountering of news, possibly explaining the negative association with objective knowledge.…”