Communication Mediation Model Predicting Political Participation among Instant Messaging App Users: An OSROR Approach

ABSTRACT

This study proposes and tests a communication mediation model that examines the potential influence of instant messenger (IM) apps on cognitive biases and political participation among users. Data from a national online panel of U.S. adults provide insights into how egocentric assumptions in public opinion perceptions that stem from mobile echo chambers can contribute to a user’s participatory behaviors, which further highlights the role of IM in politics as a private, closed mode of political communication.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobile messaging apps
• mobile interactions
• mediation analysis
• homogeneous network
• consensus bias
• political activism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/.

2. The non-IM user sample (n= 307) yielded a significant correlation between perceived consensus and political participation, though the correlation was weaker (r= .12, p= .03) than that of IM users. The independent samples t-test indicated that the mean perceived consensus score was significantly greater among IM users (M = 3.00, SD = 1.38) compared to the non-users (M = 2.37, SD = 1.21) (t= 5.493, df = 508, p< .001, two-sided). IM users also demonstrated significantly higher political participation scores (M = .32, SD = .30) than non-users (M = .19, SD = .23) (t= 5.486, df = 508, p< .001, two-sided).

3. Two alternative models were tested: (1) the first model treated perceived consensus as an antecedent of IM use and perceived IM homogeneity; and (2) the second model tested IM use as the sole exogenous variable.

4. To explore the underlying dimensions of IM use for political communication, we carried out a principal component analysis (rotation method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization). Our analysis produced only one factor having eigenvalue greater than 1.00, indicating that all of our items regarding IM use frequency strongly correlate with a single factor, which accounted for almost 83% of the original variance.

5. The national survey included self-report measure of “discussion network size,” which was measured by asking “how many groups do you interact with on WhatsApp/Snapchat” (M = 4.43, SD = 12.22). Our exploratory two-way ANOVA test revealed that there was a statistically significant interaction between the effects of perceived IM network homogeneity and network size on perceived consensus – that is, the “number of groups” people interact with via IM strengthened the effect of IM homogeneity on perceived consensus (F_(1,199) = 6.90, p< .01). Our analysis did not include measures of group chat size (i.e., number of members within each group) nor the frequency of group chat use.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Wisconsin Foundation [AAA2223].

Notes on contributors

Hyungjin Gill

Hyungjin Gill is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. His research focuses on examining how digital social networks affect civic engagement and party identification, and aims at identifying mobile user experience that shapes attitudes toward political information.

Hernando Rojas

Hernando Rojas is Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication and Helen Firstbrook Franklin Chair at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His scholarship focuses on political communication, in particular examining: (a) the deployment of new communication technologies for social mobilization in a variety of contexts; (b) the influence of audience perceptions of media (and audience perceptions of media effects) on both public opinion and the structure of the public sphere; and (c) the conditions under which media support democratic governance.