Does social media promote democracy? Some empirical evidence

Nwachukwu

Orim

et al. 2019

ITP

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to complement the scant macroeconomic literature on the development outcomes of social media by examining the relationship between Facebook penetration and violent crime levels in a cross-section of 148 countries for the year 2012. Design/methodology/approach The empirical evidence is based on ordinary least squares (OLS), Tobit and quantile regressions. In order to respond to policy concerns on the limited evidence on the consequences of social media in developing countries, the data set is disaggregated into regions and income levels. The decomposition by income levels included: low income, lower middle income, upper middle income and high income. The corresponding regions include: Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Findings From OLS and Tobit regressions, there is a negative relationship between Facebook penetration and crime. However, quantile regressions reveal that the established negative relationship is noticeable exclusively in the 90th crime quantile. Further, when the data set is decomposed into regions and income levels, the negative relationship is evident in the MENA while a positive relationship is confirmed for Sub-Saharan Africa. Policy implications are discussed. Originality/value Studies on the development outcomes of social media are sparse because of a lack of reliable macroeconomic data on social media. This study primarily complemented three existing studies that have leveraged on a newly available data set on Facebook.

Section: Datasupporting

confidence: 79%

Crime and social media

Nwachukwu

Orim

et al. 2019

ITP

“…Social media is measured with Facebook penetration data from Quintly. These data have been employed in a recent strand of literature on the importance of social media in institutional outcomes (Jha &Sarangi, 2017;Kodila-Tedika, 2018;Jha & Kodila-Tedika, 2018).The fact that some of the papers using the Facebook indicator have been published is an indication of the quality of the Facebook penetration data.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impact of social media on governing natural resources has been investigated by Kodila-Tedika (2018) whereas Jha and Sarangi (2017) have assessed the importance of social media in fighting corruption. The study has been extended by Jha and Kodila-Tedika (2018) who have examined whether democracy is promoted by social media. While the three studies above have concluded that social media respectively increases the governance of natural resources, reduces corruption and promotes democracy, two fundamental shortcomings are apparent in light of the discourse from the previous two strands, notably: (i) the findings provide global perspectives instead of African-centric results and (ii) one or two governance outcome variables are employed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governance and social media in African countries: An empirical investigation

Telecommunications Policy

Odhiambo

2019

This study assesses linkages between social media and governance dynamics in 49 African countries for the year 2012. The empirical evidence is based on ordinary least squares and quantile regressions. Ten bundled and unbundled governance dynamics are used, notably: (i) political governance (entailing "voice & accountability" and political stability/no violence); (ii) economic governance (involving regulation quality and government effectiveness); (iii) institutional governance (comprising the rule of law and corruption-control) and (iv) general governance (entailing political, economic and institutional governance). Social media is measured with Facebook penetration. The findings show that Facebook penetration is positively associated with governance dynamics and these positive nexuses differ in terms of significance and magnitude of significance throughout the conditional distribution of the governance dynamics.

“…The Facebook data is from "Quintly" which is a social media benchmarking and analytics Solution Company 2 . The data has been used in recent Facebook literature on the consequences of social media, notably:Jha and Sarangi (2017),Jha and Kodila-Tedika (2019),Kodila-Tedika (2018) and Odhiambo (2019a, 2019b).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Homicide and social media: Global empirical evidence

Uduji

Okolo‐Obasi

2019

Technology in Society

This study investigates the relationship between social media and homicide in a cross section of 148 countries for the year 2012. The empirical evidence is based on Ordinary Least Squares, Tobit and Quantile regressions. The findings from Ordinary Least Squares and Tobit regressions show a negative relationship between Facebook penetration and the homicide rate.The negative relationship is driven by the 75 th quantile of the conditional distribution of the homicide rate. The negative nexus is also driven by upper middle income countries and "Europe and Central Asia". Three main implications are apparent when the findings are compared and contrasted. First, established findings from OLS and Tobit regressions are driven by countries with above-median levels of homicide. Second, such above-median countries are largely associated with upper middle income countries and nations in "Europe and Central Asia". Third, modelling the relationship between Facebook penetration and homicide at the conditional mean of homicide may be misleading unless it is contingent on initial levels of homicide and tailored differently across income levels and regions of the world.