Social media use and democratic engagement: a comparative study of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China

Abstract

Recent studies in political communication have found a generally positive role of social media in democratic engagement. However, most research on youth’s social media use in relation to their political engagement has been conducted in the context of American and European democracies. This study fills a gap in the literature by examining the effects of the uses and structural features of social media on democratic engagement in three different Asian political systems: Taiwan (young liberal democracy); Hong Kong (partial democracy); and China (one-party state). The findings showed that sharing political information and connections with public actors consistently predicted offline participation (i.e., civic and political participation) and online participation (i.e., online political expression and online activism) in the three political systems. Although social media use for news, network size, and network structure did not consistently predict political outcomes, they played significant roles in influencing different engagement in the three political systems. The comparative approach used in this study helped to demonstrate the role of social media in the democratic engagement of youth in three places with similar cultures but different political contexts.

Keywords:

• social media
• comparative study
• civic engagement
• political participation
• survey

Notes

1. It should be noted, however, that although “political system” is theorized as the unit of “difference” among the three places, our comparative design might not account for other sources of differences, such as in the students’ lifestyles in the three samples.