Social Media Use and Political Polarization: Political Engagement as a Mediator

Kinza Amjad, Muzammil Saeed, Farahat Ali and Muhammad Awais
Additional contact information
Kinza Amjad: Department of Media and Communication, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Muzammil Saeed: Department of Media and Communication, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Farahat Ali: Faculty of Media and Communication Studies, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
Muhammad Awais: Department of Media and Communication, University of Management and Technology, Sialkot Campus, Pakistan

The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 2020, vol. 6, issue 8, 804-810

Abstract: Social media, in the new millennium, has become a very effective tool of communication, information, and propagation regarding all social, religious, and political discourses that further lead towards ideological divisions. In the contemporary democratic world, the role of social media for political opinion building is obvious which is done by opinion leaders through political information and debates. The purpose of this study is to explore the social media use and political polarization among social media users. The survey research method was used to examine social media use for political engagement and political polarization. Private university students were selected as participants (n=350). The result was found positive which means that social media use is responsible for political polarization. Moreover, social media use is also a significant predictor of political engagement. In addition to this, the results show that political engagement is a mediator between the relationship between social media use and political polarization. The practical implications of the study have been discussed.

Keywords: Social media; Political participation political engagement; Political polarization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.arpgweb.com/pdf-files/jssr6(8)804-810.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.arpgweb.com/journal/7/archive/08-2020/8/6 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arp:tjssrr:2020:p:804-810

Access Statistics for this article

The Journal of Social Sciences Research is currently edited by Dr. Paola Magnano

More articles in The Journal of Social Sciences Research from Academic Research Publishing Group Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Punjab, Pakistan.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Managing Editor ().