The great equalizer? Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies

Michael Xenos*, Ariadne Vromen, Brian D. Loader

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)151-167
Number of pages17
JournalInformation, Communication and Society
Volume17
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2014

Keywords

  • citizenship norms
  • political engagement
  • political inequality
  • political participation
  • political socialization
  • social media

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