I’m the One: Social Media, Social Identity, and Elections
More Detail
1 University of Mississippi, USA
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 10, Issue 4, Article No: e202025.
https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/9142
OPEN ACCESS 3415 Views 3393 Downloads Published online: 04 Nov 2020
ABSTRACT
This study surveyed voters to investigate why they shared political information on social media during the 2016 election. A strong social identity informed by political alignment was found to predict both polarization and more sharing, while feeling politically misaligned was found to decrease information sharing, supporting a spiral of silence phenomenon. Those with higher scores on a scale of social identity were more likely to feel sharing information to be an influential activity.
CITATION
Cain, J. A. (2020). I’m the One: Social Media, Social Identity, and Elections.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 10(4), e202025.
https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/9142
REFERENCES
- Baker, D. (1989). Language testing: A critical survey and practical guide. Arnold.
- Baron, E. (2016). This writer ranked American history’s dirtiest elections. Here’s what he says about 2016. Time Magazine. Retrieved from https://time.com/4554784/dirtiest-elections-american-history-2016/
- Casler, K., Bickel, L., & Hackett, E. (2013). Separate but equal? A comparison of participants and data gathered via Amazon’s MTurk, social media, and face-to-face behavioral testing. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 2156-2160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.05.009
- Chaffee, S. H., & Metzger, M. J. (2001). The end of mass communication?. Mass communication & society, 4(4), 365-379. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0404_3
- Clifford, S., Jewell, R. M., & Waggoner, P. D. (2015). Are samples drawn from Mechanical Turk valid for research on political ideology?. Research & Politics, 2(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168015622072
- Collins, E. (2016). Poll: Clinton, Trump most unfavorable candidates ever. USA Today, 31. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/08/31/poll-clinton-trump-most-unfavorable-candidates-ever/89644296/
- Cummins, J. (2016). This Is the Dirtiest Presidential Race Since’72. Politico Magazine, 17.
- Enten, H. (2016). Americans’ distaste for both Trump and Clinton is record-breaking. Five Thirty Eight. Retrieved from https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-distaste-for-both-trump-and-clinton-is-record-breaking/
- Gottfried, J., & Shearer, E. (2016). News Use Across Social Medial Platforms 2016. Pew Research Center.
- Greene, S. (1999). Understanding party identification: A social identity approach. Political Psychology, 20(2), 393-403. https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895X.00150
- Harris, M. (2014). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk workers protest:’I am a human being, not an algorithm.’. The Guardian, 3. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/03/amazon-mechanical-turk-workers-protest-jeff-bezos
- Hayat, T., & Samuel-Azran, T. (2017). “You too, Second Screeners?” Second Screeners’ Echo Chambers During the 2016 US Elections Primaries. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(2), 291-308. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2017.1309417
- Ho, S. S., & McLeod, D. M. (2008). Social-psychological influences on opinion expression in face-to-face and computer-mediated communication. Communication Research, 35(2), 190-207. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650207313159
- Holland, S. (2016). Violence again convulses 2016 election campaign, testing Trump, Clinton. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-politics/violence-again-convulses-2016-election-campaign-testing-trump-clinton-idUSKCN0ZO2LJ
- Huff, C., & Tingley, D. (2015). “Who are these people?” Evaluating the demographic characteristics and political preferences of MTurk survey respondents. Research & Politics, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168015604648
- Lazarsfeld Paul, F., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (1944). The People’s choice. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce.
- Lin, M. C., Haridakis, P. M., & Hanson, G. (2016). The role of political identity and media selection on perceptions of hostile media bias during the 2012 presidential campaign. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 60(3), 425-447. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2016.1203316
- Lupu, N. (2015). Party polarization and mass partisanship: A comparative perspective. Political Behavior, 37(2), 331-356. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9279-z
- Mael, F., & Ashforth, B. E. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. Journal of organizational Behavior, 13(2), 103-123. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030130202
- Mason, W., & Suri, S. (2012). Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Behavior research methods, 44(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0124-6
- McDevitt, M., Kiousis, S., & Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2003). Spiral of moderation: Opinion expression in computer-mediated discussion. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 15(4), 454-470. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1093/ijpor/15.4.454
- Mehrabian, A. (1996). Relations among political attitudes, personality, and psychopathology assessed with new measures of libertarianism and conservatism. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18(4), 469-491. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834basp1804_7
- Metzger, M. J. (2009). The study of media effects in the era of Internet communication. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1–31.
- Noelle‐Neumann, E. (1974). The spiral of silence a theory of public opinion. Journal of communication, 24(2), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1974.tb00367.x
- Oppenheimer, D. M., Meyvis, T., & Davidenko, N. (2009). Instructional manipulation checks: Detecting satisficing to increase statistical power. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 867-872. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.03.009
- Ponder, J. D., & Haridakis, P. (2015). Selectively social politics: The differing roles of media Use on political discussion. Mass Communication and Society, 18(3), 281-302. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2014.940977
- Rhodes, J. (2016). Violence has long been a feature of American elections. TheConvesation.com. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/violence-has-long-been-a-feature-of-american-elections-67688
- Riker, W. H. (1982). Liberalism against populism (Vol. 34). San Francisco: WH Freeman.
- Rost, K., Stahel, L., & Frey, B. S. (2016). Digital social norm enforcement: Online firestorms in social media. PLoS one, 11(6), e0155923. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155923
- Sanders, S. (2016). Did social media ruin election 2016?. National Public Radio.
- Sherif, M. (1988). The robbers cave experiment: Intergroup conflict and cooperation.[Orig. pub. as Intergroup conflict and group relations]. Wesleyan University Press.
- Tajfel, H. (1982). Human groups and social categories. 1981. Taijfel and Turner,” The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior, 7-24. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.4324/9780203505984-16
- Tajfel, H., Turner, J. C., Austin, W. G., & Worchel, S. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. Organizational identity: A reader, 56-65.
- Townshend, P. (1971). Won’t Get Fooled Again [Recorded by The Who]. On Who’s Next, London: Track.
- Wanta, W., & Dimitrova, D. (2000). Chatrooms and the spiral of silence: An examination of online discussions during the final 1996 US presidential debate. International Communication Association, Acapulco, Mexico.
- Weimann, G., Weiss-Blatt, N., Mengistu, G., Tregerman, M. M., & Oren, R. (2014). Reevaluating “The end of mass communication?”. Mass Communication and Society, 17(6), 803-829. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2013.851700
- Williamson, V. (2016). Can Crowdsourcing Be Ethical?. Brookings Institution, 3.
- Woong Yun, G., & Park, S. Y. (2011). Selective posting: Willingness to post a message online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 16(2), 201-227. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01533.x