Effects of Social
Media on Political
Awareness and
Participation
A Study on Students and Politics
By: Kristina Walker, Alex Englehart, Kathleen Riley, and Suzannah
Davidson
Purpose
Primarily to see if social media is a viable
method to reach college age voters.
Purpose
Can social media increase the political activism
of its users?
Literature Review
"The Rise of Non-Traditional Site Use for
Political Information", by John H. Parmalee,
John Davies, and Carolyn A. McMahan
"Social Media and the 2008 U.S. Presidential
Election" by A. Maruggi and E. Metzga
Literature Review
“Does Political Knowledge Increase Turnout?
Evidence from the 1997 British General
Election” by Valentino Larcinese
Research Questions
RQ1: Are students using social media?
Research Questions
RQ2: Are students using social media for
news gathering?
Research Questions
RQ3: Does the use of social media affect the
political awareness of students?
Methodology
•
Survey
Online: Qualtrics survey generator
o 15 questions
o Closed ended and a few open ended
o
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Participants
o
o
College students
UNC-Chapel Hill students
Methodology
•
Reaching possible participants
o
o
o
Posting survey to Facebook/Twitter
Interception of participants around campus
ONLY reaching out to college students
Methodology
•
•
Recognizing that this is a convenience
sample
Reducing the "convenience" in our sample
o
o
Listervs from different departments
Stationed at different place around campus
Results: Demographics
Results: Newsgathering and Social
Media
Results: News Organizations and
Social Media
71% follow
news
organizations
43% follow
politicians or
political
organizations
Results: Political Awareness
Conclusion
Quantitative research allowed us to see exactly
how many of our respondents used Facebook,
Twitter, or both to interact with politicians and
news outlets, indicating their interest in politics
and thus voting.
Conclusion
Qualitative research allowed us to gain a better
understanding of how students use social
media to interact with politicians and news
outlets to further their knowledge of politics. It
also supported our theory that social media
does play a role in the political awareness of
college age students.
Recommendations
Recommendation #1
Establishing a social media presence is an
effective way to reach the college age
demographic.
•
Recommendations
Recommendation #2
When going through social media, publish
through news organizations
Reaching more people with this association
•
•
o
Users are more likely to see these profiles compared
to
Recommendations
Recommendation #3
Utilize Twitter and Facebook to brand
politicians as tech savy on a national level.
•