TY - JOUR
T1 - Social networks that matter
T2 - Exploring the role of political discussion for online political participation
AU - Valenzuela, Sebastián
AU - Kim, Yonghwan
AU - Gil De Zúñiga, Homero
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - We examine the relationship between citizen-to-citizen discussions and online political participation considering various attributes of individuals' social networks: Modality, discussants' ties, diversity of opinions, and quality of argumentation. Using a national survey of U.S. residents we find that communication within networks is a significant predictor of web-based forms of political engagement, after controlling for offline participation, political orientations, news use, and socio-demographics. Consistent with the "strength of weak ties" argument, larger online networks and weak-tie discussion frequency are associated with online participation. While like-minded discussions are positively related to online participation, discussions with people who are not of like mind correlate negatively with it. Online network size and reasoning discussions were positively related to online participation, although these associations were rather weak compared to the role of other network characteristics.
AB - We examine the relationship between citizen-to-citizen discussions and online political participation considering various attributes of individuals' social networks: Modality, discussants' ties, diversity of opinions, and quality of argumentation. Using a national survey of U.S. residents we find that communication within networks is a significant predictor of web-based forms of political engagement, after controlling for offline participation, political orientations, news use, and socio-demographics. Consistent with the "strength of weak ties" argument, larger online networks and weak-tie discussion frequency are associated with online participation. While like-minded discussions are positively related to online participation, discussions with people who are not of like mind correlate negatively with it. Online network size and reasoning discussions were positively related to online participation, although these associations were rather weak compared to the role of other network characteristics.
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U2 - 10.1093/ijpor/edr037
DO - 10.1093/ijpor/edr037
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84862230904
SN - 0954-2892
VL - 24
SP - 163
EP - 184
JO - International Journal of Public Opinion Research
JF - International Journal of Public Opinion Research
IS - 2
ER -