Social media use and democratic engagement: A comparative study of Hong Kong and Taiwan

Michael Chan
School of Journalism and Communication,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Hsuan-ting Chen
School of Journalism and Communication,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

 

 

Recent political communication scholarship has found a generally positive role for social media on democratic engagement. Yet, research on youth’s social media use and participation is derived from American and European samples in liberal democracies (e.g. Xenos, Vromen, & Loader, 2014). This study fills the gap by examining the differential uses of social media technologies and their impact on political and civic engagement among university students in three different political systems in Asia: China (one party state), Taiwan (democracy) and Hong Kong (partial democracy).
Theoretically, the comparative approach helps to test the “universal validity” of certain assumptions of social media effects on engagement by applying them to similar cultures, but different political contexts. Conceptually, the study also raises several salient issues with regards to contextually-relevant operationalizations of “participation” and “social media use”. Implications of the findings to the existing literature and future cross-cultural comparisons are discussed.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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