I’m the One: Social Media, Social Identity, and Elections
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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 1397 Views 1393 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
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