Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM 1

Social Media and Its Influence on Political Activism in College Students

Aaron J. Zimmerman

California University of Pennsylvania

April 28, 2016

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Introduction

The digital revolution that occurred during the latter half of the 20th century altered the

way humans communicate completely. For the first time in human history we can communicate

globally and instantly. Elections in the United States have historically been shaped by media

technology present at the time. The American political process has adapted to the digital world

quite well. The internet and its users now play a vital role in the political process. Social media

networks are websites that focus on user generated content and interpersonal relationships that

can be maintained online. The rise of social media as a communication medium has spawned

from the widespread use of the internet in the 21st century. The Millennial Generation, adults

born in between 1987 and 1997, were some of the first dedicated users of social media networks

and were raised with online connectivity. Most of the generation is entirely connected on one

social network or another. Per the U.S. Census Bureau (2015) the Millennials became the largest

generation in the country, numbering at 83.1 million, in June of 2015. The topic of this study will

examine how social media used by this generation is influencing the political landscape of the

United States of America and how they feel about it. Millennials, many of which are enrolled in

a college or university, now hold much of the voting power in the United States and will play a

crucial role in the 2016 Presidential Election. The purpose of this study will be to examine the

influence of political and civic engagement on social networking sites (SNSs) on college

students offline participation in the political process, their sense of political efficacy, their views

on political issues, and their intention to vote in the 2016 presidential race.

Large scale online communities are now an integral part of how citizens in the United

States communicate, interact with one another, obtain news, and maintain relationships. The

introduction of digital web connected technologies has not only revolutionized how we
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communicate with one another daily, but also drastically altered how we receive information.

The internet and social network sites are now the primary source of news for many people in the

country, but primarily Millennials. This shift to a new medium has led altered how people

receive news information. There is now a switch from network generated content to that posted

by everyday users. News can now be directly heard by millions from people who witnessing it

firsthand. Social networking sites have made the broadcasting of news and information lightning

fast. The evolution of a 24-hour news cycle has put stress on the industry and sometimes lead to

false reports without valid confirmation. Researchers studying the political activity of young

adults must know that traditional means of obtaining political information and news are not as

important as before (Kushin, 2009). People now have access to a diverse pool of news sources,

more so than ever before. Newspapers, television news, and radio are now of a by-gone era to the

Millennial Generation. The rise of social media networks has also led to the evolution of political

based media as well. Users of SNSs often combine text, graphics, images, and videos for a truly

multimedia experience. These small bits of highly visual content flood the web every day. Video

media can now be recorded and uploaded by almost anyone with ease to sites such as YouTube

or Vimeo. Politicians are now able to spread their messages farther and faster than before, but

there are some drawbacks. The private and public lives of Americas influential politicians are

now always being monitored. In the political world, a simple help a candidate spread their

message or ruin them in a scandal. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others allow for political

discussions and debates on a scale that was previously unimaginable. Political content, social

issues, opinions, and communities are now common online. The dawn of the internet age opened

new a range of opportunities for political action and civic involvement that extended beyond

community and location restrictions that impeded previous generations (Kushin, 2009). The
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average citizen in the United States now has a louder political voice than ever before and one

that can be heard by millions online. Many governments around the world quickly realized the

power of a limitless and borderless online community. China proactively censored online

discussions and groups before they could cause harm to the regime. The digitally driven Arab

Spring Revolutions in 2011 demonstrated that social media can have tangible effects on the

world around us. Advancements in information and communication technology have led to

social media quickly developing into an important way to influence society online and offline

(Auvinen, 2012). The internet and SNSs in the United States continue to flourish as a

marketplace of political and social ideas. With the entire election being tracked in almost real-

time on Twitter and Facebook political presence on SNSs and the tangible effects on the real

world are here to stay.

The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election is seen by many as the first election to truly use the

internet as a medium of political campaigning. Many citizens and scholars look back at 2008 as

the first social media election. It was the first election year after the mass popularization of

SNSs and many candidates chose to use it as a medium to gather support. Barack Obama was

arguably the first politician to strongly utilize social media and it played a part in getting him into

the White House. Studies of the 2008 election demonstrated a strong relationship between

political activity on social media for adolescents with a desire for self-expression and to better

disseminate content from news websites. These relationships and the political use of SNSs were

less among users who identified themselves as Republicans during the 2008 election year (Bode,

Vraga, Borah, & Shah, 2014). This can possibly highlight the superior online presence of Barack

Obama as compared to his republican counterpart in the election. This is also the first true

example of a widespread political mobilization taking place online. For the first time in the
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history of the United States a large online community of political supporters banded together to

influence the countrys political process. Though there was a significant online presence during

the campaign, the true effects and power of it were left up to speculation at the time. A study on

the election showed that the expression and participation on social media were not significantly

related to political self-efficacy, or feelings by users that they influenced the political process.

However, users who paid more attention to traditional news media for campaign information

were seen as more politically efficacious (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). These feelings of a lesser

involvement and influence on the political process via social media networks may be attributed

to how brand new this medium and its purpose was at the time. Another study on the 2008

Presidential Election revealed that users who paid attention to campaign information on social

media primarily were more cynical, more apathetic, and less skeptical of the political

environment and process (Yamamoto & Kushin, 2013). As SNSs continued to grow after the

election of President Barack Obama so did the political and civic engagement taking place by its

users. The next general election in the United States would see the trend of social media as a

political platform only increase more.

The 2012 Presidential Election was another campaign that had an extremely strong

presence on more traditional internet outlets and an even bigger presence on SNSs than the prior

election. The digital realm of politics had changed a lot in four years. Per the market research

agency Vertical Measures (2012) 90% of members of congress, 42 governors, and 35 world

leaders were active Twitter during the election year. President Barack Obama jumped from 2

million followers in 2008 to nearly 30 million in 2012; while presidential contender Mitt

Romney had just over 7 million. The first trending political hashtag came from the Republican

contender Mitt Romney (#RomneyRyan2012) and it came to noteworthiness during the

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campaign season. A survey of college students given during the election year concluded that

many of them were motivated to use social media for political purposes for a feeling of self-

efficacy in the process. The students time spent on social media was also positively linked with

frequent use of Facebook and Twitter for a political and civic purposes (Yang & DeHart, 2016).

By 2012 mobile technology had also leaped forward from the last election period with the

widespread use and popularity of the smartphone. Now a diverse and rich sea of political content

and engagement was at the fingertips of most American citizens. Another study done during this

election year highlighted that citizens who used both online and offline sources for political

information had a stronger relationship to offline political participation if they were frequently

expressive online (Yamamoto, Kushin, & Dalisay, 2013). This highlights an increase in the

political use of social media since the election in 2008. More people were connected online and

each of the social networks had evolved in their own way over the four-year time span. Now we

are nearing another presidential election and per the Pew Research Center (2015) the share of

registered voters who follow a politician on social media has doubled since 2010. In another

survey the Pew Research Center (2016) concluded that Millennial Democrats were using social

media for political information much more than their Republican counterparts. The race to the

White House is now in full swing. The election and its candidates are practically being tracked in

real time by SNSs and other news outlets. The influence and importance of social media on the

political process continues to grow.

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H1: A college students political and civic engagement on social networking sites (SNSs) will

weakly correlate to offline forms of political participation and activism, such as campaigning and

petitioning.

RQ1: Does: a college students political and civic engagement on social networking sites (SNSs)

influence their intention to vote in the 2016 Presidential Election?

RQ2: Will a college students political and civic engagement on social networking sites (SNSs)

influence their views on a political issue in regards to the 2016 Presidential Election?

RQ3: Will a college students political and civic engagement on social networking sites (SNSs)

influence their feelings of political efficacy during the 2016 Presidential Election?
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Methods

The purpose of this study will be to examine the influence of political and civic

engagement on social networking sites (SNSs) on college students offline participation in the

political process, their sense of political efficacy, their views on political issues, and their

intention to vote in the 2016 presidential race.

Participants

The target demographic for this study will be college students aged 18-25 and therefore

are part of the Millennial Generation. The participants of this study are required to have at least

one social networking site (SNS) such as Facebook or Twitter. Any questionnaires returned with

an answer indicating that no social network is owned will be rejected. The technique used for this

will be a mix of purposive and non-probability convenience sampling.

Measures

Civic and political engagement on social media networking sites (SNSs) will act as the

independent variable in this study. Participants will receive a questionnaire that will ask them

about how much they use SNSs for political or civic engagement. The questions will use the Pew

Research Centers (2016) eight forms of online civic and political engagement. This variable will

be need to be measured at the interval level due to the need for an arbitrary zero. Offline forms of

political participation, such as campaigning or petitioning, will act as a dependent variable in this

study. This variable will need to be measured at the interval level as well, seeing as it needs an

arbitrary zero. The questions for this variable will gauge the participants involvement in four

traditional offline political activities.

This study will also contain three other dependent variables that may be effected by the

independent variable. The first of these will be the students intention to vote in the 2016
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Presidential Election, which will be measured at interval level seeing the need for an arbitrary

zero point. The students views on a political issue in regards to the 2016 Presidential Election

will be measured at the interval level. The students feelings of political efficacy will be

measured at the interval level as well. The choice of an interval level of measurement fits these

two as they deal with opinions and feelings. All the variables will be measured in twenty

questions that utilize a five point Likert-type scale that will range from strongly agree to strongly

disagree. The questions used to obtain this data will vary with some focused-on intention,

decision making, political involvement online, political involvement offline, and views political

issues. Others will be self-reflecting in nature to gauge feelings of political efficacy.

Procedures

The participants, between the ages of 18 and 25, will be taken into a single room to

complete the questionnaire. The participants shall have no knowledge of the study and its

intended purposes. They will be told that they to complete the questionnaire with a moderator

present in the room. After the session the questionnaires will be collected and the participants

will be briefed on the basis of the study and its intentions.

After the conclusion of the study, the data will be collected and totaled. The data for the

research questions will then be analyzed using the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation to

determine how the independent variable influenced the various dependent variables. The analysis

of the data will be use to formulate arguments for a knowledge claim on the influences of social

networking site (SNSs) usage for political engagement by college students and its influence on

their views on political issues, feelings of political efficacy, their intention to vote in the 2016

Presidential Election
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The hypothesis will use the collected data on political and civic engagement on SNS and

offline political participation. It will be analyzed using the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation

coefficient. This will help determine if the influence of SNSs for political and civic engagement

weakly or strongly correlate to the participants involvement in offline political activities. This

information will be used to form an argument to support a knowledge claim on how digital

activism translates to offline activism in the 2016 Presidential Election.

Results

The central tendencies of political and civic engagement on SNSs (M=27, Mo=28/30,

Mdn=30) were notably higher than that of students participation in offline political activities

(M=9.4, Mo=8, Mdn=10). The data for this research hypothesis was calculated using the Pearson

Product-Moment Correlation coefficient. The results of this found that political and civic use of

an SNS did in fact produce a very weak positive correlation to a students participation in the

offline political process (r=0.04). The observed value of t (2.1) was greater than the critical value

of t (1.73) and therefore the null hypothesis can be rejected.

The first research question aimed to examine the influence of political and civic

engagement on a students intention to vote in the 2016 election. The results of using the Pearson

Product-Moment Correlation coefficient yielded that there was a strong positive relationship

between SNS use and intention to vote.(r=0.82). The observed value of t (1.94) was greater than

the critical value of t (1.73) highlighting that the relationship between the two is significant and

the null hypothesis may be rejected.

The second research question aimed to gauge the influence of SNS use on students views

on political issues. Once again using the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation coefficient the

analysis found that there was a weak positive relationship between the two (r=0.48). However,
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the observed value of t (1.13) was lower than the critical value of t (1.73) highlighting that the

relationship between the two is not significant and the null hypothesis cannot be rejected.

The third and final research questions purpose was to gauge the influence of political

SNS use on students feelings of political self-efficacy. The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation

coefficient found that there was a moderately positive correlation between the two variables

(r=0.62). The observed value of t (1.82) was slightly lower higher the critical value of t (1.73)

showing that the relationship is significant and the null hypothesis can be rejected.

Discussion

As stated in the results, the hypothesis could be supported by the data collected during the

study showing that political SNS use did in fact weakly correlate to offline political activism.

From this it is possible to claim that while many Millennials are active online and engaging

politically and civically; many of them have never taken part in traditional political activities

such as petitioning, campaigning, writing to officials, and even voting. Many have referred to

this as slacktivism which is a term to describe a lazy form of online political action that does

not help the process significantly. However, it is worth noting that some of these participants

would not have been of age during the prior election. As well as noting the growing decline of

some older versions of offline political activities and the lack of frequent rallies in the sampling

area. The first research question yielded results that political SNS use may in fact influence

intention to vote in the Millennial Generation. Most respondents answered with a high intention

to vote in the upcoming 2016 Presidential Election. These respondents also displayed a heavy

usage of SNSs for civic and political engagement. On the reverse side of this the participants

who answered with the lowest intention to vote also displayed almost no usage of SNSs for any

political or civic reasons. The second research question was intended to gauge how civic and
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political engagement on SNSs influenced how students viewed political issues. The results

yielded a weak relationship that was also not significant. The scores for this section were rather

low for many of the participants. The results were also quite scattered with even the participants

who use SNSs most for political content showing that they did not become more involved, less

involved, or changed their view on an issue based on what they viewed on social media. This

could be due to a multitude of issues. The small sample population may just be well rooted in

their ideals and views. Or the sampling may just be people who are mostly concerned with

sharing their own thoughts, not considering those of others. The final research questioned was

aimed at seeing if the political and civic engagement on SNSs by students influenced their

feelings of political self-efficacy. This specific question and topic has been researched before in

the last two elections and was a motivator for young adults to be politically active online. The

results of this study yielded that they was a moderately positive relationship between the specific

uses of SNSs politically and the participants feelings of political self-efficacy. The relationship

between the two was significant, as it was in previous studies. Many participants answered that

the political process can be influenced online, offline, and that real social change can start from

the digital sphere. However, the participants were split on if they feel better and more involved

by positing their own thoughts and content online. This makes it appear that this sampling felt

more politically efficacious when sharing, discussing, commenting, or liking content from a

more reputable source such as a news site, blogger, or the candidate themselves. This could be

simply because the opinion leaders on SNSs and their content hold more weight and value in the

eyes of the Millennials.

While this study was done with the utmost care and attention to detail, there are still

several threats to its validity. The internal validity of this study is first threatened by procedural
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errors. The questionnaire was by no means perfect and could have been made much better to

more clearly obtain and collect data from the participants. The next threat to the internal validity

of this study would be any measurement errors that may have occurred during the research

design. Some of the variables may have been more suited to be measured at the ratio level rather

than the interval level. Another possible threat to the internal validity of this study would be the

data analysis procedures, any small mathematical mistakes or misplaced numbers could easily

skew the results unintentionally. The final possible threat to the internal validity of this study

would be the possibly of a social desirability bias amongst the participants. They were all aware

they were being monitored and may have felt inclined by social pressure to portray themselves as

more politically active than they are.

The one and only apparent threat to the external validity of this study would be the

sample population size. The sample was drawn from a small university in South Western

Pennsylvania. Therefore, these results cannot be generalized to represent a bigger portion of

Millennials in this country. The sample size only gave a very small picture of how young college

students are influenced and effected by SNSs when it comes to the political landscape we are

currently seeing.
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