El. knyga: Outside the Bubble: Social Media and Political Participation in Western Democracies

"The ways in which citizens experience politics on social media have overall positive implications for political participation and equality in Western democracies. This book investigates the relationship between political experiences on social media and institutional political participation based on custom-built post-election surveys on samples representative of internet users in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States between 2015-18. On the whole, social media do not constitute echo chambers, as most users see a mixture of political content they agree and disagree with. Social media also facilitate accidental encounters with news and exposure to electoral mobilization among substantial numbers of users. Furthermore, political experiences on social media have relevant implications for participation. Seeing political messages that reinforce one's viewpoints, accidentally encountering political news, and being targeted by electoral mobilization on social media are all positively associated with participation. Importantly, these political experiences enhance participation especially among citizens who are less politically involved. Conversely, the participatory benefits of social media do not vary based on users' ideological preferences and on whether they voted for populist parties. Finally, political institutions matter, as some political experiences on social media are more strongly associated with participation in majoritarian systems and in party-centric systems. While social media may be part of many societal problems, they can contribute to the solution to at least two important democratic ills-citizens' disconnection from politics and inequalities between those who choose to exercise their voice and those who remain silent"--

"The ways in which citizens experience politics on social media have overall positive implications for political participation and equality in Western democracies. This book investigates the relationship between political experiences on social media and institutional political participation based on custom-built post-election surveys on samples representative of internet users in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States between 2015-18. On the whole, social media do not constitute echo chambers, as most users see a mixture of political content they agree and disagree with. Social media also facilitate accidental encounters with news and exposure to electoral mobilization among substantial numbers of users. Furthermore, political experiences on social media have relevant implications for participation. Seeing political messages that reinforce one's viewpoints, accidentally encountering political news, and being targeted by electoral mobilization on social media are all positively associated with participation. Importantly, these political experiences enhance participation especially among citizens who are less politically involved. Conversely, the participatory benefits of social media do not vary based on users' ideological preferences and on whether they voted for populist parties. Finally, political institutions matter, as some political experiences on social media are more strongly associated with participation in majoritarian systems and in party-centric systems. While social media may be part of many societal problems, they can contribute to the solution to at least two important democratic ills-citizens' disconnection from politics and inequalities between those who choose to exercise their voice and those who remain silent"--nstitutional political participation based on custom-built post-election surveys on samples representative of internet users in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States between 2015-18. On the whole, social media do not constitute echo chambers, as most users see a mixture of political content they agree and disagree with. Social media also facilitate accidental encounters with news and exposure to electoral mobilization among substantial numbers of users. Furthermore, political experiences on social media have relevant implications for participation. Seeing political messages that reinforce one's viewpoints, accidentally encountering political news, and being targeted by electoral mobilization on social media are all positively associated with participation. Importantly, these political experiences enhance participation especially among citizens who are less politically involved. Conversely, the participatory benefits of social media do not vary based on users' ideological preferences and on whether they voted for populist parties. Finally, political institutions matter, as some political experiences on social media are more strongly associated with participation in majoritarian systems and in party-centric systems. While social media may be part of many societal problems, they can contribute to the solution to at least two important democratic ills-citizens' disconnection from politics and inequalities between those who choose to exercise their voice and those who remain silent"--

Much time has been spent over the past decade debating whether social media contribute to democracy. Drawing on an original study of internet users across nine Western democracies, Outside the Bubble offers an unprecedented look at the effects of social media on democratic participation.

This book argues that social media do indeed increase political participation in both online and face-to-face activities--and that they expand political equality across Western democracies. In fact, Cristian Vaccari and Augusto Valeriani find that, for the most part, social media do not constitute
echo chambers or filter bubbles as most users see a mixture of political content they agree and disagree with. Various political experiences on social media have positive implications for participation and active political involvement: social media allow citizens to encounter clearly identifiable
political viewpoints, facilitate accidental exposure to political news, and enable political actors and ordinary citizens to reach voters with electoral messages designed to mobilize them. Moreover, political interactions occurring on social media do not only benefit citizens who are already
involved, but boost participation across the board. This is because social media offer both additional participatory incentives to the already engaged and new political opportunities for the less engaged.

By adopting a comparative approach, Vaccari and Valeriani also show that political institutions matter since some political experiences on social media are more strongly associated with participation in majoritarian systems and in party-centric systems. While social media may contribute to many
societal problems, they can help address at least two important democratic ills: citizens' apathy towards politics, and inequalities between those who choose to exercise their voice and those who remain silent.