TY - JOUR
T1 - The great equalizer?
T2 - Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies
AU - Xenos, Michael
AU - Vromen, Ariadne
AU - Loader, Brian D.
PY - 2014/2
Y1 - 2014/2
N2 - Recent developments suggest a strong relationship between social media use and political engagement and raise questions about the potential for social media to help stem or even reverse patterns of political inequality that have troubled scholars for years. In this paper, we articulate a model of social media and political engagement among young people, and test it using data from representative samples of young people in Australia, the USA, and the UK. Our results suggest a strong, positive relationship between social media use and political engagement among young people across all three countries, and provide additional insights regarding the role played by social media use in the processes by which young people become politically engaged. Notably, our results also provide reasons to be optimistic concerning the overall influence of this popular new form of digital media on longstanding patterns of political inequality.
AB - Recent developments suggest a strong relationship between social media use and political engagement and raise questions about the potential for social media to help stem or even reverse patterns of political inequality that have troubled scholars for years. In this paper, we articulate a model of social media and political engagement among young people, and test it using data from representative samples of young people in Australia, the USA, and the UK. Our results suggest a strong, positive relationship between social media use and political engagement among young people across all three countries, and provide additional insights regarding the role played by social media use in the processes by which young people become politically engaged. Notably, our results also provide reasons to be optimistic concerning the overall influence of this popular new form of digital media on longstanding patterns of political inequality.
KW - citizenship norms
KW - political engagement
KW - political inequality
KW - political participation
KW - political socialization
KW - social media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84895910738&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1369118X.2013.871318
DO - 10.1080/1369118X.2013.871318
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84895910738
SN - 1369-118X
VL - 17
SP - 151
EP - 167
JO - Information, Communication and Society
JF - Information, Communication and Society
IS - 2
ER -