A Partisan Climate of Opinion: Why Social Media is a Key Indicator for Right-Wing Supporters in Germany

Carina Weinmann (), Olaf Jandura () and Thomas Petersen ()
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Carina Weinmann: Department of Social Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Olaf Jandura: Faculty of Business Studies, University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf
Thomas Petersen: The Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach

Duesseldorf Working Papers in Applied Management and Economics from Duesseldorf University of Applied Sciences

Abstract: Today, citizens’ media repertoires have become more individualized than ever. Research suggests that this has changed how people gauge the climate of opinion: While some, as suggested by the spiral of silence theory, still rely on the mass media, for others, social media are the key indicator. There are first hints that political affiliation is decisive in this matter. Our paper seeks to find evidence for this line of reasoning regarding supporters of two opposing German political parties. Based on a representative survey of German voters, we examined which factors determine the perceived congruence between the majority’s and people’s own opinion. Our analyses show that for supporters of the right-wing political party, one central factor is discussing politics via social networking sites. Our findings add to the knowledge on how the processes suggested by the spiral of silence theory are shaped by today’s media landscape and the current political situation.

Keywords: climate of opinion, mass media; political affiliation; political parties; social media; spiral of silence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol
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Published in Forschungsberichte des Fachbereichs Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Hochschule Düsseldorf, 2026,63 ISSN 2365-3361

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