https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4187-3604
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ABSTRACT
Ordinary citizens are increasingly using mobile instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp for politically-related activities. Compared to other ‘semi-public’ online platforms, WhatsApp provides a more intimate and controlled environment in which users can almost simultaneously gather and share news, discuss politics, and mobilize others. Relying on two-wave panel data collected in Spain, USA, and New Zealand, this study examines the mediating role of WhatsApp political discussion in the relationships between different types of news use and various forms of political participation. First, our findings reveal WhatsApp discussion has a positive influence on activism, and a more nuanced effect on conventional participation. Second, results are partially supportive of a fully mediated set of influences between news media and social media news uses and both types of participation via WhatsApp. Finally, the study examines age differential effects between younger (Gen Xers and Millennials) and older (Boomers) age groups.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Homero Gil de Zúñiga holds the Medienwandel Professorship at University of Vienna, Austria, where he also leads the Media Innovation Lab (MiLab). In general, his research addresses the influence of new technologies and digital media over people’s daily lives, as well as the effect of such use on the overall democratic process. [email: [email protected]].
Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu is an Assistant Professor (‘contratado Viera y Clavijo’) at Department of Cognitive, Social and Organizational Psychology at the Universidad de La Laguna, Spain. His research interests explore the boundaries between political science, communication, and political psychology. He is particularly engaged in the enquiry about positive and negative effects of internet-based media on individual beliefs, attitudes, and emotions, and how this translates into political action. [email: [email protected]].
Andreu Casero-Ripollés is the Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Spain, and professor of Journalism. He has served as a visiting researcher at the universities of Columbia (United States) and Westminster (UK), among others. His research interests are focused on the current transformations of digital journalism and political communication. [email: [email protected]].
Notes
1 Figures on WhatsApp use among adults for the three countries analyzed in this study are as follows: 32% in Spain (Newman, Fletcher, Kalogeropoulos, Levy, & Nielsen, Citation2018), 22% in the United States (Pew Research Center, Citation2018), and 22% in New Zealand (Kemp, Citation2018).
2 OLS regression analyses performed in SPSS, version 21.0
3 The formulae used to calculate the difference between standardized regression coefficients (betas) is based on the actual beta, their t-value, and their standard error. When z scores are obtained, differences that are z > 1.96, z > 2.56, and z > 3.3 represent a statistically significant difference at p < .05, p < .01, and p < .001, respectively.
4 Path analysis with structural equation modeling (SEM) test performed with the assistance of Mplus, version 7.0. In response to suggestions from anonymous reviewers, we tested two theoretically plausible alternative SEMs and compared their performance characteristics. The first of these alternative models was analogous to that presented in but included offline political discussion as a second mediator (parallel to WhatsApp discussion) of the relationships between news uses and participation behaviors. Unfortunately, this second formulation provided a much worse fit to the data (χ2 = 31.04; df = 5; p < .001; RMSEA = 0.06; CFI = 0.94; TLI = 0.83; SRMR = .031; AIC = 20942.93; BIC = 21055.81) than did our first model (). Finally, we tested a third model in which offline and online discussion (exogenous variables) stimulate further political discussion via WhatsApp (mediator) which, in turn, boosts conventional and activist participation (outcome variables). This last structure provided a much better fit to the data and offers directions for future research on discussion attributes as antecedents of WhatsApp discussion (see discussion): χ2 = 1.10; df = 4; p = .89; RMSEA < 0.05; CFI = 1.00; TLI = 1.01; SRMR = .006; AIC = 17093.22; BIC = 17175.32.
5 Since our study focuses on the discussion-participation component of the model and does not include specific hypotheses or research questions for the media uses-discussion paths, we only theorized an interaction of M and W on Y. However, we also wanted to consider the theoretically plausible interaction of X and W in predicting M. Accordingly, we use the more complex Model 58 – which simultaneously tests two moderated relationships – instead of the simpler Model 14 (see Hayes, Citation2013).
6 Tests of highest order unconditional interactions: [X*W, R2 = .003, F(1, 1149) = 4.51, p < .05]; [M*W, R2 = .004, F(1, 1148) = 10.49, p < .001].
7 Tests of highest order unconditional interaction: [X*W, R2 = .001, F(1, 1174) = 1.86, n. s]; [M*W, R2 = .017, F(1, 1173) = 39.46, p < .001]. According to Hayes’ description of the index of moderated mediation, ‘evidence of statistically significant interaction between any variable in the model and a putative moderator is not a requirement of establishing moderation of a mechanism’ (Citation2015, p. 3).