Political Discussions on Social Media in Pakistan and Obstinate Partisanship

Abstract

With the rise of social media over the last two decades, people have become more polarized and rigid in their views. Social interactions on social media networks are affecting political behaviors and making people obstinate partisans. The term obstinate partisanship was coined by Ardevol-Abreu and Gil de Zuniga (2020) and referred to the blind, unconditional loyalty to a certain political party. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of obstinate partisanship in Pakistani media users who are active consumers of political news and regularly engage in political discussions. This study seeks to investigate how significantly various factors impact obstinate partisanship. The factors studied are media use habits, affiliation with a political party, sociodemographic characteristics including age, gender, education, income, area of residence, and political discussion attributes. The survey data collected from the four major cities of Pakistan and their neighboring rural areas were used. The data revealed that the individuals who engage in political talk online and disagreements during discussions over political issues are more likely to remain unconditionally supportive of party policy and action regardless of their adequacy, the effectiveness of the policy and party performance and this disposition seems to increase with age.