From Context Collapse to “Safe Spaces”:Selective Avoidance Through Tie Dissolution on Social Media

This study examines whether disconnective practices on social media such as unfriending could constitute a form of selective avoidance and investigates its boundary conditions. To do so, we study whether, to what extent, and under which conditions exposure to disagreement on social media predicts politically motivated unfriending. Specifically, we examine how the relationship varies in different relational contexts and whether it is conditioned by opinion minority status. Using survey data collected shortly before the 2017 Chief Executive Election in Hong Kong, we find cross-cutting exposure to be a significant predictor of politically motivated unfriending. This suggests that the disconnective practices represent a form of selective avoidance, but only among a relatively small number of social media users. We also show that only disagreements arising from political discussion with distant others predict unfriending. Furthermore, opinion minorities are more inclined to cut ties in the face of political disagreement than the majorities. Based on these findings, we discuss the weakness of weak ties on social media and characterize selective avoidance as a means to build digital “safe spaces”

Social Media and Electoral Predictions: A Meta-Analytic Review

Can social media data be used to make reasonably accurate estimates of electoral outcomes? We conducted a meta-analytic review to examine the predictive performance of different features of social media posts and different methods in predicting political elections: (1) content features; and (2) structural features. Across 45 published studies, we find significant variance in the quality of predictions, which on average still lag behind those in traditional survey research. More specifically, our findings that machine learning-based approaches generally outperform lexicon-based analyses, while combining structural and content features yields most accurate predictions

Liberating Technologies? Perceptions of Government Control and Citizens’ Use of Social Media during the Elections

Social media may liberate citizens in societies with stringent media controls and accelerate political democratization. Yet, little is known about the relation between social media use and perceived constraints in a semi-authoritarian system. This study draws on Media System Dependency theory to examine this relation in the context of the 2011 Singapore General Election. Our findings, based on national survey data, suggest that perceived control of traditional media and political activity is positively related to content production on social media as well as the visits to opposition party websites and Facebook pages. Additionally, perceived control of mass media is associated with increased consumption of political content on social media. Perceived control of the Internet reduces rather than increases content production on social media. We argue that social media alters the balance of dependency relationships between the government, media organizations and citizens. They create new, meso level networked avenues for information gathering and participation during the elections

Las implicaciones de ser asocial en las redes sociales

Early research on social media supported some of the optimistic views about their positive impact on social capital and linked their use with the exposure to more diverse views and greater engagement with society. Still, more recently, scholars have started looking into “unsocial” behaviors on social media platforms, such as unfriending, unfollowing and muting, and examining their social capital implications. In this essay, we review the extant research on these selective avoidance and disconnection practices and advance the concept of “digital safe spaces” -online environments created via post-hoc filtering and curation of social ties- to further discuss their role in contemporary democratic societies. We find that digital safe spaces may provide fertile grounds for civic and political expression, particularly for minorities. However, the creation of these digital enclaves may also drive minorities further away from the political mainstream and may lead to the reduction economic and political opportunities for the citizens who are excluded from “safe spaces”.Los primeros estudios sobre redes sociales respaldaban visiones optimistas en relación con su impacto positivo en el desarrollo del capital social, y relacionaban su uso con la exposición a puntos de vista más diversos y a un mayor compromiso con la sociedad. Sin embargo, recientemente, los investigadores empezaron a analizar los comportamientos asociales que se pueden llevar a cabo en las redes sociales y a estudiar sus consecuencias sobre el desarrollo del capital social. En este ensayo, revisamos la literatura existente centrada en estudiar estas prácticas de evitación y desconexión selectiva y avanzamos en el concepto de ‘espacios digitales seguros’ -entornos online creados filtrando y eliminando post hoc a contactos en redes sociales-, con el objetivo de profundizar en el debate sobre sus consecuencias en las sociedades democráticas contemporáneas. Nuestros hallazgos apuntan al hecho de que los espacios digitales seguros pueden constituir un entorno fértil para la expresión cívica y política, especialmente para las minorías. Sin embargo, la creación de estos enclaves digitales puede también alejar aún más a las minorías del consenso político generalizado y podría llevar a una reducción de las oportunidades económicas y políticas de aquellos ciudadanos que están excluidos de los “espacios seguros”

Technologies of freedoms: How culture shapes the liberating potential of communication technologies.

New communication technologies have been hailed as having a potential to bring freedom and democracy to the world, and this dissertation aims to examine some of these claims in a comparative, international context. More specifically, I focus on the mediating role of horizontal communication technologies (i.e. telephone, mobile telephone and the Internet) in the relationship between cultural factors and political development. In my theoretical model, political culture is viewed as shaping the structure, regulation and uses of horizontal communication networks, and hence having an influence on whether and how these networks are put to democratizing uses. In this dissertation, I view political culture as being strongly influence by religious traditions and political history of any given society, while focusing on two specific characteristics of new horizontal technologies, namely their levels of accessibility and decentralization. My key assertion is that new horizontal technologies are more reflective of the dominant political culture of a society than it has been the case with traditional vertical media such as radio and television. Hence, in the case when mass values are supportive of democracy, culture is likely to promote the development of highly decentralized and easily accessible communication systems and foster their democratizing uses. My results suggest that horizontal communication networks such as telephone, mobile telephone and the Internet truly matter for political development. I find evidence suggesting that the levels of accessibility and decentralization of horizontal networks are positively linked with institutional and effective democracy, as well as with economic competitiveness. Furthermore, my findings indicate that these structural characteristics are influenced by cultural values, which partly stem from religious traditions (e.g. Protestantism, Catholicism, Confucianism, etc.) and political history (e.g. communism) of a society in which horizontal networks are deployed. My results also indicate that cultural factors shape the regulatory and legal environment in which horizontal networks are developed and operated, and influence how these networks are being used by citizens.Ph.D.Communication and the ArtsMass communicationPolitical scienceSocial SciencesSociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/125887/2/3224749.pd

Political implications of disconnection on social media:A study of politically motivated unfriending

This study examines the political implications of social media through the lens of digital disconnectivity. Specifically, it focuses on politically motivated unfriending and examines its influence on individuals’ political engagement, namely political expression and information consumption on social media. Furthermore, considering the importance of minority-majority relations for understanding disconnection phenomena, we investigate whether the impact of unfriending is more pronounced among opinion minorities than majorities. Using a two-wave panel survey conducted in the post-Umbrella Movement Hong Kong, we find that politically motivated unfriending predicts an increased level of political expression, but that it is only significant among people who perceive themselves as holding minority opinions. At the same time, we find no relationship between unfriending and information consumption on social media. Based on the findings, we discuss the implications of unfriending for building digital “safe spaces” and its distinct role in promoting political engagement in times of political conflicts

Youth engagement in Singapore: the interplay of social and traditional media

This research examines the implications of social media use for political engagement among young people in Singapore. The project included a qualitative analysis of a student protest, followed by a national survey of young Singaporeans. The findings suggest that social media use is positively related to traditional political participation, while also providing evidence of the continued importance of traditional media for political engagement. More specifically, we find that the attention paid to news in traditional media is a more important predictor of both traditional and online participation than the generic use of Facebook