![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This study tried to explore the role of Facebook, Plurk, and YouTube in the two-step and N-step flows of communication models during the 2012 Taiwanese presidential election, and the possible effect on political efficacy caused by usage of the above online platforms. The results showed that higher frequency of online search for campaign information correlated to greater inclination to discuss related issues on Facebook and Plurk; and higher frequency of viewing political videos on YouTube correlated to more sharing behaviour. This validated the existence of the two-step flow of campaign communication online. The hypothesis of the N-step theory was also confirmed as forwarding behaviour among voters was found to be positively correlated to frequency of discussion on Facebook and Plurk. Moreover, Facebook, Plurk, and YouTube usage was demonstrated to have a significant positive effect on political efficacy.
Notes on contributor
Alice Yah-Huei Hong is a Professor at the Graduate Institute of Mass Communication, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan. She got her Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, in 1996, and was a research fellow at the Asian Communication Research Centre (ACRC), Nanyang Techonological University, Singapore, in 2009. She has many years of practical experience in election campaigning and also is a reviewer of many renowned academic journals in Taiwan and in the USA. She has broad research interests and her areas of specialization include Internet marketing, election campaigning, advertising effects, and quantitative research methods.
Notes
1. Twitter was not selected as a study object because in spite of its global popularity, in Taiwan, it is only utilized by less than 10% of Internet users (Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute [MIC] Citation2011).
2. From the focus group it was learned that internal political efficacy was more affected by political discussion on social media platforms, as the interviewees reported that the discussions led them to believe that they ‘have sufficient knowledge of important political issues’ and ‘understand government operations better than others’. On the other hand, when asked whether the discussions would lead them to believe that ‘politician are inaccessible’ or that ‘those in government are not concerned with people's opinion’, the interviewees answered in the negative, mentioning that ‘some candidates had responded personally to comments on Facebook and Plurk’. This indicated that social media discussion may not be able to affect external political efficacy. Therefore, we decided to focus on learning about internal political efficacy within the confines of the questionnaire.
3. Source: http://www.insightxplorer.com/index.html. IX recruits panelists annually in partnership with the Institute for Information Industry and Taiwan's top ISPs and portals. Their Internet Online Survey System searches for suitable samples from a database covering all age groups and professions. By using IX's CyberPanel, the study in effect employed the double sampling method (Chang Citation2007), that is, a fixed number of samples fulfilling certain characteristics were drawn from a sizeable, available population (in this case the 120,000-plus panelists in IX's CyberPanel database) without the sampling frame being known, before a subsample was randomly selected from the first sample.
4. The study has chosen young people in the 20–29 age brackets as its subjects. This is because surveys have found that users of Facebook, Plurk, and YouTube overlap mainly in the under-30 age group. For example, data from CheckFacebook.com shows that Facebook's Taiwanese users are composed mostly of those aged 18–24, at 38.5%, followed by those aged 25–34, at 28.3% (CheckFacebook.com, 2012, November 27). A user profile report from Video Metrix shows that the 25–34 and 15–24 age groups are the primary consumers of online videos in Taiwan, at 28% and 26%, respectively (InsightXplorer Citation2012). Plurk, the most popular microblog in Taiwan, is predominantly utilized by those under 29, with 20–29 the largest age group among its users (InsightXplorer Citation2011). At the same time, because the study is interested in online media usage in connection with election campaigning, voting eligibility determines that the respondents must be aged 20 or older.
5. With regard to the sample, a random selection of 815 individuals were found who had viewed political videos on YouTube during the election, and 615 of them had also shared those videos with friends; 507 individuals had used both Plurk and Facebook to discuss election information.