Social media, political expression, and participation in Confucian Asia

Abstract

This study reviews and analyzes the published empirical research on the role of social media in promoting political expression and participation in Confucian Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. In addition to providing a narrative review of the literature, our analyses show clear numerical estimates of the relationships among different types of social media use (i.e., informational, expressive, relational, and recreational), political expression, and participation in Confucian states. The findings reiterate the importance of the expressive use of social media, showing its moderately strong relationship with participation. The findings also show weak positive relationships with informational and relational uses. We also examine the role of political systems in these relationships and conclude that the strongest relationships are in democratic states, followed by hybrid and authoritarian systems.

Keywords:

• social media
• political expression
• political participation
• Confucian Asia
• political system
• meta-analysis

Notes

¹ Following Dalton and Ong (2005), we originally included Japan and Vietnam in the study because they are nations influenced by Confucian traditions. However, the literature search did not yield any quantitative social scientific study of the relationship between social media use and participation conducted in Japan or Vietnam and published in the English language by mid-2015.