Gender and Political Participation: News Consumption, Political Efficacy and Interpersonal Communication

Abstract

With the backdrop of women's political progress in recent decades, this study was designed to answer two related questions. First, is there a gender gap in political participation among young males and females with similar educational background and equal access to political news and information? Second, how do factors such as news consumption, political efficacy, and political discussion interact with the relationship between gender and political participation? Through a survey of university students in Singapore, this study showed that females were less politically knowledgeable, less politically efficacious, and less likely to engage in political discussion and in offline and online political activities than males. Results further showed that females depended on political efficacy and discussion, whereas males were more likely to be motivated by political efficacy in their political participation. News consumption on the new and social media platforms also appeared to contribute to political participation for both males and females. Implications of this study were discussed.

Abstract in Chinese

近年来女性在政治方面取得了巨大进步，在此背景下，本研究着重考察 如下两个问题：第一，在教育背景相似、获得政治新闻的机会均等的青 年男女中是否仍存在着政治参与方面的性别差异？第二，新闻消费、政 治效能感及政治讨论等多个因素是如何影响性别与政治参与的关系的？ 通过在新加坡一所大学的学生中进行的一次问卷调查，本研究发现与男 性参与者相比，女性参与者具备较少的政治知识和政治效能感，她们也 更少参与政治讨论及其他一些线上、线下的政治活动。研究结果进一步 表明女性参与政治活动更多受她们的政治效能感和政治讨论的影响，而 男性则主要依赖政治效能感。另外，新媒体尤其是社交媒体上的新闻消 费同时影响男性和女性的政治参与。最后，我们对本研究的意义进行了 深入探讨。

Keywords:

• Asian women
• political efficacy
• political discussion
• political participation
• new media

Keywords:

• 关键词
• 亚洲女性
• 政治效能感
• 政治讨论
• 政治参与
• 新媒体