www.donau-uni.ac.at/cedem

1. Social Media and Citizen
Engagement in Asia:
A Comparative Survey
CeDEM Asia 2016
Daegu, South Korea, December 8th, 2016

2. Introduction
• Need to understand the pa.erns of poli2cal
engagement in the digital era
• Focus on (Confucian) Asia
• Similar surveys: World Values Survey, Asia
Barometer
• Examining the role of culture and poli2cal ins2tu2ons
• Topics
• Types of use and engagement
• Exposure to disagreement/selec2ve avoidance
• Racism and hate speech
• Knowledge gaps
• Video gaming and engagement

3. Method
• Compara2ve survey
• Common groups of ques2ons across socie2es
• + country/topic specific ques2ons
• 50+ ques2on groups
• Online panels, 2015-2017
• Vendor: YouGov, HK/SG office
• Approx. cost per country US$10,000-15,000
• First survey conducted in Singapore in Sept 2015

4. Countries/territories
• China (to be completed)
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan

5. Citizen Engagement in Confucian Asia
• China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and
Taiwan share many cultural, linguis2c, and
historical traits
• S2ll, they have vastly different poli2cal systems,
ranging from authoritarian to liberal-
democra2c, which shapes the impact of social
media use on poli2cal life
• Highly wired socie2es – rising importance of
social media in social and poli2cal life
• Increasing poli2cal polariza2on

6. Project leaders
• Muneo Kaigo, University of Tsukuba
• Tetsuro Kobayashi, City University of Hong Kong
• Nojin Kwan, University of Michigan
• Tammy Lin, Na2onal Chengchi University
• Natalie Pang, Nanyang Technological University
• Marko Skoric, City University of Hong Kong
• Bauhua Zhou, Fudan University

7. Political Expression and Exposure
to Disagreement on Social Media:
What are the Implications?
Marko M. Skoric & Qinfeng Zhu
Department of Media and Communica2on
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R., China

8. • Social media promote expansion of human social
networks
• Facebook as a network centered around an “ego”
• Only 4-5 degrees of separa2on among all FB users
• Dunbar’s number (150) vs. # Facebook friends (200-300)
• The gain is predominantly in the domain of weak and
latent 2es
• WhatsApp, Line, KakaoTalk & WeChat take people back
to their “psychological neighborhoods”
Social Media and Human Networks

9. • Expansion of human social networks brings
more informa2on sources
• Greater access to public affairs informa2on
• InformaDon à Expression à Talk à ParDcipaDon?
• More informa2on à greater need for fact-checking,
cura2on, and filtering
• Intelligent agents/social algorithm or human/manual
Social Media & Political Information

10. Social Media Use and Engagement
(Pearson’s r correlations)
Skoric, M. M., Zhu, Q., Goh, D., & Pang, N. (2016). Social media & ci2zen
engagement: A meta-analy2c review. New Media & Society.
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
Informa2onal
use
Expressive use Rela2onal use Iden2ty use Entertainment
use

11. • Poli2cal expression on social media is one of the
possible paths to inadvertent exposure to poli2cal
differences (Brundidge, 2010)
• Poli2cal expression on social media is open meant
for a specific audience (Papacharissi, 2012)
• Therefore, it could lead to disagreement when the
message(s) reach the unintended audiences
• Social network sites use has a direct effect on
exposure to cross-cuqng perspec2ves (Kim, 2011)
• Impression mo2va2ons can make individuals more
recep2ve towards cross-cuqng views (Winter, Metzger,
& Flanagin, 2016)
Political Expression on Social Media
and Exposure to Disagreement

12. • Homogeneous environments are ideal for encouraging
poli2cal par2cipa2on (i.e. vo2ng) by reinforcing opinions and
promo2ng recogni2on of common problems
• Exposure to poli2cal difference depresses vo2ng because of
increased social costs and poli2cal ambivalence (Mutz, 2002)
• Exposure to countervailing views has a nega2ve impact on
the likelihood of vo2ng but encourages other forms of
par2cipa2on
• e.g., voluntary ac2vi2es and future involvement in either
poli2cal ac2vism or party poli2cs (Paqe & Johnston, 2009)
• Exposure to cross-cuqng online networks may yield
different impact, depending on the forms of par2cipa2on
• Par2san-related ac2vi2es vs. community-related engagement
Exposure to Political Disagreement
and Citizen Engagement

13. Exposure to Ideologically Diverse Information
and Opinions on Facebook (US users; Bakshy et al., 2015)

14. Unfriending & Unfollowing in Israel
John, N. & Dvir Gvirsman, S. (2015) I don't like you anymore:
Poli>cal unfriending on Facebook. Journal of Communica>on.

15. Political Participation and Selective
Avoidance in Singapore and Hong Kong

16. Selective Avoidance and Protest Attendance
(Hong Kong Occupy Central 2014; student survey)
Yes No
Didn’t
a.end
9.5% 90.5%
Low
a.endance
8.5% 91.5%
High
a.endance
17.7% * 82.3%
Yes No
Didn’t
a.end
5.6% 94.4%
Low
a.endance
5.1% 94.9%
High
a.endance
18.2% * 81.8%
Unfriending on Facebook
Hiding Facebook posts

17. Selective Avoidance and Political
Participation during the Elections (Singapore 2015)
During the recent elec2on, have you ever unfriended
or unfollowed someone on SNS (Facebook, Twi.er,
Instagram)?
Yes No
10.3% 89.7%
Rally a.endance
Yes 15.7% 84.3%
No 8.3% 91.7%
Bought campaign
products
Yes 31.5% 68.5%
No 8.6% 91.4%
Top reasons:
① Published offensive
posts
② Published content I
disagreed with
③ Posted too much
④ Published posts that
could offend my
friends

18. Current study, Hong Kong 2016

19. Research Questions
① Is exposure to disagreement linked with the
greater likelihood of unfollowing and
unfriending?
② Is persuasion on social media linked with the
greater likelihood of unfollowing and
unfriending?
③ Is impression management on social media
linked with the greater likelihood of
unfollowing and unfriending?

20. Method
• Online survey conducted in Feb 2016
• Hong Kong Residents 18-65
• 1500 respondents
• 97% social network site users

21. Results
• People who reported to have unfriended or unfollowed
someone encountered more disagreement on social media
(M1= 3.38, M2= 2.83, t(df)= -3.96(1289), p< .001)
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
Unfriended/unfollowed Others

22. Results 2
• People who reported to have unfriended or unfollowed also
had more conversa2on with others holding similar views (M1=
3.69, M2= 3.01, t(df)= -4.68(1289), p< .001).
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
Unfriended/unfollowed Others

23. Results 3
• People who reported to have unfriended or unfollowed someone
are more likely to use SNSs for impression management
(presen2ng and censoring oneself on Facebook in order to gain
social approval) (M1= 4.39 M2= 3.97, t(df)= -3.77(1289), p< .001).
3.7
3.8
3.9
4
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
Unfriended/unfollowed Others

24. Results 4
• People who reported to have unfriended or unfollowed
someone are also more likely to use social media to persuade
or influence others (M1= 3.85, M2= 3.21, t(df)= -4.71(1289),
p< .001).
2.8
3
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4
Unfriended/unfollowed Others

25. Discussion
• Expressive, informa2on and rela2onal uses of
social media are the most significant predictors
of poli2cal and civic ac2on
• Expression and discussion may lead to
disagreement
• May lead to selec2ve avoidance (unfriending and
unfollowing)
• Selec2ve avoidance also linked with increased
poli2cal par2cipa2on
• Direc2on of causality?

26. Discussion—continued
• Different strategies for different audiences?
• People may care more about gaining a favorable
impression from similar others than from dissimilar
others
• Impression management more relevant for in-group
building and sense of belonging
• But, people are also more likely to be driven by
persuasion mo2va2ons when interac2ng with
disagreeing others
• Unfollowing/unfriending as a consequence of failed
persuasion a.empts?

27. • Exposure to diverse views and disagreement is good for
democracy and engagement with community
• But, par2san engagement and protest par2cipa2on need
opinion reinforcement, not conflict or ambiguity
• “Fake news” during the US elec2ons
• Some contexts require more homophilic environments
• Social media pla•orms may increase the likelihood of exposure
to poli2cal difference and disagreement
• But, they also enable easy filtering and removal of content (and
people) when needed
• How do we ensure that ci2zens are exposed to diverse
views?
• Pressuring social media companies?
• Providing more offline public spaces for ci2zen interac2on?
Conclusion

28. Thank you!