青年臉書使用與政治參與之關聯性研究: 論臉書政治資訊性使用、政治表達性使用、以及與政治人物連結之角色 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 碩士論文. 立. 治政 Master’s Thesis 大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 青年臉書使用與政治參與之關聯性研究:. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 論臉書政治資訊性使用、政治表達性使用、以及. n. a與政治人物連結之角色 iv l C n U h Facebook The Youth's Usage of Activism: e n g c hfori Political The Role of Political Information, Expression, and Connection with Political Actors. Student: Pei-Ju Liu 劉佩茹 Advisor: Professor Nien-Hsuan Fang 方念萱教授. 中華民國 105 年 3 月 March 2016.

(2) 青年臉書使用與政治參與之關聯性研究: 論臉書政治資訊性使用、政治表達性使用、以及與政治人物連結之角色 The Youth's Usage of Facebook for Political Activism: The Role of Political Information, Expression, and Connection with Political Actors 研究生: 劉佩茹. 立. Advisor: Professor Nien-Hsuan Fang. 學 sit. io. 碩士論文. n. al. Ch. eAnThesis gchi. er. Nat. 國際傳播英語碩士學位學程. y. 國立政治大學. ‧. ‧ 國. 指導教授:方念萱教授. 治 Pei-Ju Liu 政 Student: 大. i n U. v. Submitted to International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies National Chengchi University. In partial fulfillment of the Requirement For the degree of Master of Art 中華民國 105 年 3 月 March 2016.

(3) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a thesis is a long self-reflective journey with overcoming series of hurdles. Thanks to the support and assistance of many important people in my research life, I can successfully complete the thesis and obtain my master degree. Particularly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Fang Nien-Hsuan for her patient support, warm encouragement, and careful instruction. She is not only my advisor but mentor to guide my academic thinking and life attitude.. 政治大 I also sincerely appreciate Dr.Tsung-Jen Shih and Wang Song-in for being my 立. ‧ 國. 學. committee members. The thesis is developed from a final paper from Prof. Shih’s class.. ‧. Due to his instruction, I can conquer the fear of statistics and finish a quantitative paper.. sit. y. Nat. Besides, I would love to thank Prof. Wang who spared her time checking my statistics. n. al. er. io. results. Their insightful comment during my defense improved my research. I would like. Ch. i n U. v. to especially thank my friends Liting Chen, I-rou Chou, and Angela Peng. Whenever I. engchi. suffered from critical and difficult moment during research writing, they were always there accompanying and encouraging me with warm hugs at my lowest. My special thanks should go to my parents who supported any of my decision. They have endured loneliness and my bad temper while writing my thesis. Many thanks are dedicated to all my family members and friends who have been supporting me all along. I sincerely appreciate all people I have encountered during NCCU camps life.. i.

(4) ABSTRACT The effect of social networking sites in relation to the youth’s offline political participation has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. However, previous research showed inconsistent results. Given Facebook is the most used social networking site in Taiwan, this thesis attempts to adopt a multidimensional approach to examine the roles of various aspects of political activities on Facebook and their effects on offline political participation among Taiwanese youth. This study examines whether Facebook use for information, Facebook use for expression, and connection. 政治大 participation. Using an online questionnaire, a total of 703 Taiwanese respondents, 立. with public political actors on Facebook are related to Taiwan’s youth offline political. aged 18 to 35, participated in this study. Findings of this study suggest that Facebook. ‧ 國. 學. for expression and connection with public political actors has significant and positive. ‧. association with offline political participation. Aside from focal independent variables,. sit. y. Nat. some other control variables exerted significant influence on offline political. io. er. participation, such as internal efficacy, offline political discussion, and TV news use. An implication of these results is the possibility to utilize Facebook as a. al. n. v i n Cpublic bridge between young adults and actors. Future researchers can U h e npolitical i h gc. continue to refine the dimensionality of social media usage to examine its relationship with offline political participation.. Key words: Facebook, youth, political participation, political information use, political expression use, connection with public political actors. ii.

(5) 摘要在政治傳播學術界中，青年使用社群媒體與線下政治參與的關聯性研究逐漸引發關注。然而，過去的研究由於臉書使用定義不一，致使研究結果互不相同。臉書是台灣民眾最廣泛使用的社群媒體之一，本論文透過不同面向的臉書使用情況來檢視臉書如何對台灣年輕人的政治參與產生影響。本研究探討台灣 18 歲至 35 歲的青年，他們在臉書上找尋政治資訊、表達政治意見、以及與政治人物間的連結互動等行為如何影響其線下的政治參與。. 政治大使用者在臉書上經常發表政治意見、與政治人物互動頻繁，他們在線下就立. 本研究採用線上問卷調查法，有效樣本共 703 份。研究結果顯示如果. ‧ 國. 學. 會越積極地參與政治活動。。另外其他控制變項如內在政治效能、線下政治討論以及電視新聞使用也是影響線下政治參與的因素。此研究結果顯. ‧. 示，臉書可以成為青年和政治人物之間的橋樑。未來研究可以針對不同層. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 面的臉書使用來檢視社群媒體和線下政治參與兩者間的關聯性。. v. n. 關鍵字: 臉書、青年、政治參與、政治資訊性使用、政治表達性使用、與政治人物連結. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U.

(6) TABLE OF CONTENT Chapter One: Introduction ......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Study background ..........................................................................................................1 1.2 Purpose of research........................................................................................................6 1.3 Organization of chapters................................................................................................8. Chapter Two: Literature review ................................................................................ 9 2.1 Defining political participation ............................................................................ 9 2.2 Facebook and political activities ........................................................................ 11 2.2.1 Facebook use for political information........................................................ 13. 政治大 2.2.3 Connection with public political actors on Facebook ................................. 20 立 2.3 Psychological and behavioral antecedents of political participation.................. 23 2.2.2 Facebook use for political expression ......................................................... 17. ‧ 國. 學. Chapter Three: Methodology ................................................................................... 27 3.1 Sampling and data collection ............................................................................. 27. ‧. 3.2 Measurement ...................................................................................................... 29. y. Nat. sit. 3.3 Survey questionnaire design and statistical analysis ................................................. 36. er. io. Chapter Four: Result ................................................................................................. 37. al. n. v i n Ch 4.1 Statistical analysis .......................................................................................................... 47 engchi U. 4.1 Descriptive analysis ........................................................................................................37. Chapter Five: Discussion ........................................................................................... 52 5.1 Implications of results ....................................................................................................52 5.2 Limitation of the study and future research ....................................................................57. Appendix Reference ................................................................................................... 60 Appendix 1 Survey Questionnaire............................................................................ 69. iv.

(7) LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1.1. List of key studies on SNSs and offline political participation ................ 5. Figure 3.1. Research Model ....................................................................................... 27. Table 3.1. Descriptive statistics of construct ........................................................... 33. Table 3.2. Factor loading for the items of Political activities on Facebook ............ 34. Table 3.3. Factor loading for the items of Political efficacy ................................... 35. Table 4.1. Demographic Information....................................................................... 38. Table 4.2a. Frequency of Getting News from Traditional Media Platforms ............. 39. Table 4.2b Attention on News from Traditional Media Platforms ........................... 39. Table 4.5. 政治大 Respondents' Political efficacy ............................................................... 41 立 Frequency of Political Discussion and Offline Political Participation ... 43. Table 4.6. Frequency of Facebook information and expression use........................ 45. Table 4.7. Frequency of Connection with Public Political Actors .......................... 46. Table 4.8. Zero order correlations among all independent and dependent variables. Table 4.4. The Categories of Respondents' Partisanship ......................................... 40. 學. ‧. ‧ 國. Table 4.3. y. sit. Hierarchical multiple regression predicting for offline political. io. er. Table 4.9. Nat. in the study.............................................................................................. 50. participation ............................................................................................ 51. n. al. Ch. engchi. v. i n U. v.

(8) Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Study Background Although many researcher have asserted that political participation plays an important role in democratic society (i.e. Putman, 2000), serious concerns have been raised over the low rate of political participation among the youth and future generations. Much research on political communication from the last decade showed increasing detachment of younger people from politics in Taiwan and other countries.. 政治大 elections among young people (i.e., Kaid, McKinney, & Tedesco, 2007; Chen & Chen, 立 They concerned declining political interest, falling participation, and low turnout at. 2013). Bennett (2008) suggested that politics has become a dirty word rather than a. ‧ 國. 學. commonly accepted moniker for personal expression. Recent reports in Taiwan have. ‧. shown low levels of political participation among young adults in Taiwan (i.e. Shih,. sit. y. Nat. 2014; Chen & Huang, 2007). However, Chen & Huang’s (2007) study pointed out. io. er. that the college students are not rarely low compared to national representative samples. It seems that not only young adults but the entire Taiwanese population is. n. al. Ch. not actively involved in political participation.. engchi. i n U. v. However, the use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) as a political communication arena is a recent phenomenon among the youth. SNS have brought new hopes of reconnecting youth with offline political participation. Many creative forms of collective expression on SNS seems more appealing. SNS has kept young people informed, and enabled them to interact with others with political issues, and then further engage in collective actions (Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009; Yamamoto, Kushin & Dalisay, 2013). Examples of Taiwanese student activism mobilized with the help of Facebook in Taiwan include two well-known incidents: The 2012 anti-media 1.

(9) monopolization campaign1 and the “Sunflower Student Movement” in early 2014. The latter protested the government’s attempt to forcibly pass the service trade pact, allegedly without some due process. From early March till April 2014, many students were very active in the movement. Online interactions were followed by a massive rally in front of the Taiwan’s Legislative building. An example of the intense online activities was that the Black Island Nation Youth (黑色島國青年) Facebook page had garnered over 300 thousand fans until September 20142. Young people had posted first-hand news about ongoing protest events in front of the Cabinet headquarters,. 政治大 formed the research group disseminating the information on Facebook. They had 立. called the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan. Members of Black Island Nation Youth even. collected articles, reports and statistics in an attempt to refute the government. ‧ 國. 學. statements about the potential benefits of passing the services agreement with China. ‧. (Chao, 2014). These younger SNS users shared issues and then initiated political. sit. y. Nat. discussions with their peers on these sites. With the mobilization, students proved There. io. er. their ability to turn the liking on the (their likes on) Facebook into action.. were approximately 110,000 demonstrators who rallied against the cross-strait service. al. n. v i n C hto the National Police trade pact on March 30, according Agency (Hsiao, 2014). It is a engchi U. sign that the youth are changing from traditional “dutiful citizens” into “actualizing citizens” (Bennett, 2008). Compared to parties or civic organizations which use one-way conventional communication to mobilize supporters, young people currently favor loose networks of community action, maintained by utilizing interactive. information technologies (Bennett, 2008). These groups, composed of student. “The protest on Nov. 26, when around 100 university students from the Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters (反媒體巨獸青年聯盟) staged an overnight, sit-in protest in front of the Executive Yuan.” (Yi, Feb. 14, 2013) Retrieved from: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2013/02/14/2003554849 2 The Facebook Page of Black Island Nation Youth: https://www.facebook.com/lslandnationyouth 1. 2.

(10) activists, do not have formal organizational structures. Rather, these student activists use Facebook to create an alternative public sphere as a voice of the Taiwanese, separated from mainstream media and party politics, with posts, shares, and likes. (Harrison, 2014). Also, it is noted that Facebook has engaged users with new opportunities for interactive, user-generated political experiences. It expands beyond basic forms of engagement to more dynamic and effective political behaviors (Yamamoto et al., 2013; Vitak, Zube, Smock, Carr, Ellison, & Lampe, 2011). For instance, the fund-raising. 政治大 2014, with many people dumping freezing buckets of water over their heads to draw 立. campaign “ice bucket challenge” went viral on Facebook from the U.S. to Taiwan in. attention to a paralyzing disease --- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Not only. ‧ 國. 學. Taiwanese celebrities but ordinary citizens, particularly the young people among them,. ‧. enthusiastically participated in the social media campaign. The phenomenal success. sit. y. Nat. has made other charitable organizations rethink how they can connect with a younger. io. er. generation of potential donors (C.F.Chen, 2014). During that time, the Newsfeed was flooded with videos of people drenching themselves in ice water, accompanied by the. n. al 3. hashtag #icebucketchallenge .. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The challenger nominates participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and challenging others to do the same. The nominees have 24 hours to comply or make a charitable donation to the ALS or another charity group. The example showed that highly interactive nature of Facebook newsfeed linked Facebook activism with the offline fundraising campaign. Facebook offers young citizens an opportunity to access political opinions and beliefs through interaction with their peers, which could, in turn, stimulate their own interest and. 3. A Hashtag ("#") is a form of metadata tag shown on SNS. Hashtags make it possible to group such messages, since one can search for the hashtag and get the set of messages that contain it 3.

(11) knowledge (Vitak et al., 2011). In response to growing social media use for political activities among the youth, the relationship between SNS and the youth’s political and civic participation has been extensively studied. Previous studies indicated that the factors influencing civic and political behaviors included the intensity of Facebook use (i.e. Valenzuela, et al., 2009), the reliance on SNS, (i.e. Zhang, et al. 2010), SNS use for News (i.e. Gil de Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela, 2012), and online expression about campaign (i.e. Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). However, it is still debatable whether SNS use can. 政治大 participation during the 2008 presidential election in the U.S. showed that there was 立. enhance political or civic participation. The study on Facebook users’ political. no positive relationship between the intensity of Facebook use and political. ‧ 國. 學. participation (Vitak et al., 2011). Due to lack of a commonly accepted. ‧. conceptualization of Facebook/SNSs usage (As Table 1.1), the research findings of. y. Nat. relationship between social media use and political participation differ (Tang & Lee,. er. io. sit. 2013). Tang & Lee (2013) argued that unlike conventional mass media, ‘‘using’’ Facebook or other SNS usage not only refers merely to exposure to content, but also. al. n. v i n C hsuch as the construction dimensions engchi U. varies along many. of personal profiles,. consumption and/or production of shared materials, and commenting on or simply ‘‘liking’’ other people’s postings. Besides, Valenzuela (2013) suggested that there is no clear elaboration on how using social media translates into increased political activities. For these researchers, it is not the time spent with media that matters; rather, it is the specific ways in which individuals use the technology (Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009; Tang & Lee, 2013). For instance, compared to entertainment use of the Internet (i.e. online gaming), informational use (i.e. getting news online) can be more likely to promote civic participation (Valenzuela et al., 2009). Therefore, it is crucial to examine the impact of social media use on political 4.

(12) participation from various aspects of social media use. Based on this premise, the current study will adopt a multidimensional approach in its examination of the impact of Facebook use on political participation among the youth from the ages of 18 to 35 in Taiwan.. Table 1.1 List of a selection of key studies on SNSs and offline political participation Political participation (Dependent variables ). on SNS Gil de Zúñiga et al. (2012). SNS use for news. al. n. The reliance. Ch. engchi. 1. Civic participation 2. Political participation 1. Social capital 2. Civic participation 3. Online political participation 4. Offline political participation. 5. y. Offline political participation. 1. Negative relationship between intensity of Facebook use and offline political participation 2. Positive relationship between Facebook political activities and offline political participation.. sit. io. Zhang et al.(2010). students’ life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation. ‧. Nat. Vitak et al. 1. Intensity of (2011) Facebook use 2. Facebook activities. relationships between 政治 Positive 大 of Facebook use and intensity. Life satisfaction Social trust Civic engagement Political participation. 立. Intensity of Facebook use. Results. 學. 1. 2. 3. 4.. ‧ 國. Valenzuela et al. (2009). SNSs Usage (Independent variables). er. Author. i n U. v. Positive relationship between the reliance on SNS and civic participation; rather than political participation. Positive relationships between SNS use for news and social capital, civic and political participatory behaviors (online and offline).

(13) 1.2 Purpose of the Study As proposed above, the current study aims to answer how and under which conditions Facebook use is related to offline political participation by examining three forms of political activities for Facebook, namely, Facebook use for political information, political expression, and the connection with public political actors on Facebook in relation to political participation among the youth from the ages of 18 to 35 in Taiwan. It seeks to adopt a multidimensional approach to examine various aspects of Facebook use on political participation. A web survey of Taiwanese youth. 政治大 predict offline political participation. 立. from the ages of 18 to 35 was conducted to examine whether these variables can. Vitak et al. (2012) suggested that future studies should investigate whether. ‧ 國. 學. certain members of users’ friend network would have a greater impact on one’s. ‧. political participation since people are nested in a dynamic network. Therefore, the. sit. y. Nat. current study examined whether individuals, who are exposed to more politically. io. er. active network members (i.e. political representatives, social movement activists, and media commenters), become more active political participants through “friending” or. al. n. v i n C h together, the current “liking” these political actors. Taken study attempts to examine engchi U how the connection with public political actors will propel the followers to engage in political participation. There are several factors that motivate the researcher investigating political activities within the context of Facebook. In regard to Facebook use among Taiwanese, Taiwan has the highest penetration rate of Facebook in the world. The population of active Facebook users in Taiwan has reached 15 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, which accounts for 65 percent of the country's population, according to Facebook data (Central News Agency, 2014). Facebook is also cited as the most-used social network site in Taiwan (95.8%) by a huge margin, with Google+ 6.

(14) (24.7 %) claiming a distant second, according to the report from the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) (Chung, 2014). With regard to Taiwanese Facebook demographics, the youth makes up the majority of Facebook users , with 31.7% of Facebook users being between 25 and 34 years old, followed by 21.5 % of users between the age of 18 and 24 years old (Socialbakers, 2014). These high rates among the youth highlight Facebook as an important social media site to study. However, even with this growing popularity of Facebook use for political participation in Taiwan among the young generation, there is still limited empirical. 政治大 college students have a positive attitude towards civic participation but their actual 立. research predicting the effects of Facebook use on political behaviors. Besides,. involvement is limited, according to a survey on college students’ attitude and. ‧ 國. 學. behavior in offline civic participation (Sun, 2008). Based on previous reasons, it is. ‧. important that the current study is able to explore whether Facebook offers. sit. y. Nat. opportunities for new forms of political activities and its relevance for offline political. io. er. participation. This study aims to use a multidimensional framework to examine the political use of Facebook and political participation among young adults in Taiwan.. al. n. v i n Ctoh how far FacebookUis used for political activities Based on this, questions arise as engchi. and whether the use of Facebook is affecting young generation’s behaviors of political participation.. 7.

(15) 1.3 Organization of chapters The chapters were organized as follows. For Chapter One, this study began with an introduction on the background of study and a brief overview of the social media use for political activities among the youth in Taiwan. Chapter Two is a review of the literature with respect to the following issues. The definitions, typologies, and the discourses regarding political participation were discussed firstly. The second part discusses the features of Facebook and its affordance for political activities. Three dimensions of Facebook use that influence political participation are reviewed,. 政治大 befriending political actors on Facebook. Control variables were discussed in the third 立 namely Facebook for political information, Facebook for political expression, and. part of this chapter, along with their relationship between different variables.. ‧ 國. 學. Chapter Three is about the method used in this research. This section. ‧. covered the measurement, sampling plan, survey questionnaire design, and statistical. sit. y. Nat. method for analysis. Chapter Four reported major findings from the data collected, by. io. er. means of utilizing correlation and linear hierarchical regression analyses. Lastly, the in-depth discussion about the findings, limitation of the study, practical contribution. al. n. v i n C hwere covered in chapter and implications for future research Five. engchi U. 8.

(16) Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1 Defining political participation In this thesis, the researcher attempts to examine how Facebook political activities are related to offline political participation. Citizens’ participation in the political process has been considered a crucial element for a functioning and healthy democracy. Traditional definitions of political participation focus on voting and campaign activities. Verba, Schlozman, & Brady (1995) offered a canonical definition. 政治大 officials. In the same. of political participation as a behavior that seeks to affect government action like public policy or selection of. 立. vein, Conway (1985). conceptualized political participation as activities that citizens perform in order to. ‧ 國. 學. influence different levels of the government, such as its structure, policies, or officials.. ‧. In short, political participation can be referred to as public actions which intend to. sit. y. Nat. influence government through diverse voluntary involvement. Verba & Nie (1972)’s. io. er. pioneering work systematically explored the categorization of political participation that covered turnout, campaigning, communal, and particularized contacting activities.. al. n. v i n The communal activities refer C to forming groups orU h e n g c h i contacting officials or political actors for solving social problems, while particularized contacting activities mean. contacting officials for personal needs. Verba & Nie (1972) attempted to extend the concept of political participation into extra-institutional arena by including communal activities and particularized contacting activities. Researchers have offered a variety of categorizations to update the definition of political participation. For instance, Teorell, Torcal, & Montero (2007) proposed a more extensive typology, classifying five main types of political participation: electoral participation, party activities, protest activity, consumer participation (i.e. donating money to charity and boycotting), and targeted forms of communication (i.e. 9.

(17) contacting elected officials). The typology widened the extra-institutional forms of political action to include noninstitutionalized forms of political behavior like protesting, boycotting, and signing petitions. For the purposes of this thesis, the researcher is most interested in forms of the youth’s offline political participation. Given that political participation of citizens is important in the functioning of a healthy democracy, there has been considerable research specifically concerning the disengagement of young people from the political system. The decline of youth political participation would negatively impact the. 政治大 young people to be supported and encouraged (Banaji, 2008; Livingstone, Bober, & 立 governance of society, which highlights the need for the democratic participation by. Helsper, 2005). The pioneering work by Verbal et al. (1995) argued that there are. ‧ 國. 學. three reasons people might not become active in politics. Firstly, they can’t.. ‧. Individuals lack time, money, or skills, which may make it difficult for them to take. sit. y. Nat. part. Secondly, they don’t want to. People may not be concerned about political issues. io. er. and thus not interested in political participation. Lastly, nobody asked. Citizens may not be exposed to those who attempt to mobilize them to political action. However,. al. n. v i n C &h Delli Carpini (2006) Zukin, Keeter, Andolina, Jenkins, proposed that young people engchi U. are less attracted by traditional forms of political engagement such as voting and other. election affairs, but are more likely to engage in civic involvement such as voluntary activities or boycotting. Such assertions have called for a broader and more contemporary approach toward political participation (Livingstone et al., 2005; Bennett, 1998). Livingstone et al. (2005) suggested that politics can be defined broadly by including identity politics, civic activities, and social movement issues. Drawing on the typology presented by Teorell et al. (2007), Ekman & Amnå (2012) developed a new framework of political participation which makes a clear distinction between manifest “political participation” (formal political behavior as well as protest 10.

(18) or extra-parliamentary political action) and less direct or “latent” forms of participation, conceptualized as “civic engagement.” Manifest political participation refers to all actions directed towards influencing governmental decisions and political outcomes; while latent political participation, or so-called civic participation, includes individual or collective actions intended to influence circumstances in society that are of relevance to others, outside one’s own family and circle of friends. Civic participation enables young people to learn skills and develop networks of necessity in political activity (Ekman & Amnå, 2012).. 政治大 manifest political participation as electoral participation, contact activity and party 立 In sum, the researcher measures offline political participation including. activity, protest, and civic actions.. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 sit. y. Nat. 2.2 Facebook and political activities. io. er. Considering Facebook is the most-used SNS in Taiwan, the current study focuses on Facebook as the context of research and presents an investigation of. al. n. v i n political activities on Facebook.Cboyd & Ellison (2007) h e n g c h i U defined SNS as “web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their lists of connections and those made by others within the system” (p.211). In other words, these characteristics include the creation of a user profile, a list of users with whom one is connected, and the ability to view a list of one’s connections and the connections of others within one’s network. This way, users form visible network connections through displaying users’ interpersonal networks on SNS. Also, research showed that connections among users on these sites typically represent preexisting offline relationships (boyd & Ellison, 2007; Ellison, 11.

(19) Steinfield, & Lampe,2007). As for the structure of Facebook, there are two main pages, namely “profile” and “home”. The profile page, also called “the wall”, is where users present themselves. It contains the area of “status updates”: users can post anything they want in their status, and friends can respond to this statement by text comments or by liking it (shown directly below the status). On the home page, also often called “news feed,” users are informed on the status updates and other activities (joining groups or becoming a fan of something they like) from their friends. It thus automatically and. 政治大 hours (Caers, et al., 2013). The highly interactive nature of Facebook’s news feed 立 chronologically reflects the highlights of what friends have been doing in the past. encourages users to become more active political participants and possibly expand. ‧ 國. 學. beyond basic forms of engagement to more dynamic and effective political ones. For. ‧. instance, Facebook users can monitor their personal contacts and stay updated about. sit. y. Nat. what is going on with them on their news feed. Users can view their friends’ activities. io. er. by scrolling through the news feed on their homepage, and they can comment on friends’ posts, thus engaging in active conversation about political issues. With these. n. al. Ch. functions, SNS can reinforce existing ties and. engchi. v i n communities U. by keeping users. constantly updated about what is going on with their contacts (Park, Kee, & Valenzuela, 2009). The affordances of SNS suggest that they might be well suited to develop new forms of online political behaviors. Conroy, Feezell, & Guerrero (2012) summarized five main features of Facebook which can be used for political communication : (1) group: members are connected based on shared common political interest and they can directly communicate with each other via private messages; (2) wall: users can post messages on their profile page to present their opinion publicly; (3) notes: users can share their views with blog-like posts; (4) share: users can post links to external 12.

(20) websites on their profile; (5) fan pages: users can show support for a public figure. Taken together, Facebook offers a number of methods through which users can immerse themselves in political context. With their visible network connections on Facebook, politically apathetic individuals can still be connected to acquaintances who are highly interested in public affairs, and these active political actors could become sources of occasional political information and messages.. 2.2.1 Facebook use for political information. 政治大 news from Facebook on political behaviors. Users can use SNS for staying informed 立. The thesis aims to examine the effect of acquiring political information and. about current events and public affairs, getting news about current events and public. ‧ 國. 學. affairs from news organization or friends on these sites (Gil de Zúñiga, et al., 2012).. ‧. In the past, informational motives for traditional and new media use have received. sit. y. Nat. considerable attention from scholars interested in political participation. Informational. io. er. uses of newspapers (McLeod, Scheufele, & Moy, 1999), televisions (Norris, 1996), blogs (Gil de Zúñiga, Puig-i-Abril, & Rojas, 2009; Gil de Zúñiga, Bachmann, Hsu. al. n. v i n C communication &Brundidge, 2013), and mobile (Campbell & Kwak, U h e n g c h itechnologies. 2010) have been shown to lead directly and indirectly to political participation. These studies demonstrated how media consumption for informational purposes plays a positive role in connecting individuals to political behaviors. The researcher anticipate similar results for this use of Facebook, not only because it would be consistent with the finding of previous research, but also because the medium as Facebook facilitates access to news and political information through integration of mainstream news, peer-generated information, and even information provided by elected officials or candidates during election. Besides, news organizations increasingly rely on Facebook for distribution of 13.

(21) news articles (Olmstead, Mitchell, & Rosenstiel, 2012). Facebook has become one of the most influential drivers of traffic to news sites, accounting for 20 percent of traffic (Somaiya, 2014). Home pages of Facebook are usually the most popular page among SNS regarding the show-ups of current news for most of the top news sites. Facebook plays an important role in linking users to the original news sites. Facebook has worked with news sites to develop features that allow users to directly connect a news article with their personal profiles and share it with their network (Ternes, Mittelstadt, &Towers, 2014). Many mainstream news organizations in Taiwan (i.e. Central News. 政治大 visit news websites that have integrated Facebook in their platform. Therefore, users 立. Agency) have set up Facebook pages to increase their publicity and influence. Users. can consume hard news or information that is specifically about politics on SNS.. ‧ 國. 學. Traditional Internet sources regarding political information and news mainly. ‧. rely on paid professionals, while SNS rely primarily on interaction between users. sit. y. Nat. (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). SNS has evolved from a network for friends. io. er. exchanging personal information to a platform for people to share, recommend, and link together all kinds of information, including news (Olmstead, Mitchell, &. al. n. v i n politicalCinformation. In addition h e n g c h i U to. Rosenstiel, 2011) and. acquiring news from. candidates and mainstream news organization on these sites directly, users today are informed by their lists of contacts and receive information from news media through their interpersonal networks (Halpern, 2013). There are three characteristics embedded in SNSs that allow users to be able consume news and political information from the peer. Firstly, the factors of “user-generated content” in SNS serve as a source of political information. The content of SNS that are publicly available and created by users, which makes them consumers and producers of political information (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Johnson & Kaye, 2014). Second, Facebook enables users to disseminate the news to support their views. PEW (2011) indicated that “sharing news 14.

(22) may be among the most important [media technology] of the next” (Olmstead, Mitchell, & Rosenstiel, 2011, p.10). Users can attach the links to news on their or friends’ profile or groups so that those who view the post can consume these news on SNS (Weeks & Holbert, 2013). Lastly, rather than merely receiving political information from traditional news media sources, users can experience politics on a more familiar, personal level through the postings of friends and acquaintances (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). Users obtain a stream of customized political information from their online contacts (Yamamoto, Kushin & Dalisay, 2013).. 政治大 adding personal commentaries, and they also can learn about politics by consuming 立. Taken together, users can rebroadcast content related to public affairs by. peers-generated political commentary. With these ways, peers’ comments on. ‧ 國. 學. information that is broadcasted by media not only generate a higher interest but also. ‧. trigger participatory behaviors (Halpern, 2013).. sit. y. Nat. The consumption of political information via Facebook might spur further. io. er. political action since it can help users stay informed about news and public affairs. Recent empirical research had examined SNS for political information purposes in the. al. n. v i n context of election, protest, andC situational political involvement hengchi U. 4. (Zhang et al., 2010;. Valenzuela, 2013; Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). However, the effects of the social media use for information on offline political participation were quite mixed. Gil de Zúñiga et al. (2012) supported that seeking news and information about public affairs via SNS can predict users’ civic and political participation in the online and offline context. Tang & Lee (2013) also noted that exposure to shared political information can predict Hong Kong university students’ political participation. Nevertheless, during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, although young people aged. 4. situational political involvement refer to people perceived relevance or interest of an issue at given moments or social situations such as election (Kushin and Yamamot, 2010) 15.

(23) 18-24 recognized SNS as a source of political news and received news from these sites, Baumgartner & Morris (2010) found that news consumption from SNS were not related to offline political participation. For predicting protest behavior in Chile, Valenzuela (2013) also found that following news on SNS can’t spur further political action. One reason for this may be the news content in social media is still supplied by mainstream media organizations. Thus, by controlling for news use in traditional platforms, the variance of protest activity explained by social media for news became insignificant. Also, according to the survey on college students’ use of online media in. 政治大 attention to social media for campaign information couldn’t activate user’s motivation 立 the 2008 U.S. presidential election by Kushin &Yamamoto (2010), it showed that. to seek out information. These results indicated that various information unrelated to. ‧ 國. 學. politics might distract users’ attention from news related to public issues. The null. ‧. finding for the information explanation deserves further examination.. sit. y. Nat. Given the contradictory results, whether political information consumption on. io. er. Facebook ultimately affects political and civic participation probably still remains an open question. However, as discussed previously, Facebook users acquire political. al. n. v i n C hand learn of opportunities affairs engchi U. information about public. to participate from. candidates, mainstream organizations, and peer-generated information. Therefore, the researcher raised the question whether Facebook for political information is related to political participation.. RQ1. What is the effect of Facebook use for political information on political participation?. 16.

(24) 2.2.2 Facebook use for political expression Recent studies distinguish between informational and expressive blog use (Gil de Zúñiga, 2009; Gil de Zúñiga, Bachmann, Hsu & Brundidge, 2013). They found that consumptive use involves the relatively passive experience of reading blogs, which, although an important part of the process, may not be enough to stimulate political participation. However, expressive use is more active and interactive, which can engage people in a more complex reasoning processes, and then spur citizens’ political involvement (Eveland, 2004; Jung, Kim, & Gil de Zúñiga, 2011). Compared. 政治大 which can engage users in more complex reasoning processes (Eveland, 2004). 立 to the information consumption of media, expression is more active and interactive,. Exercising one’s political voice involves more information processing and the depth. ‧ 國. 學. of reason, which have been found to be conducive to political engagement (Cho et al.,. ‧. 2009). Therefore, political expression may work to transform netizens from mere. sit. y. Nat. observers to participants, leading to political action.. io. er. In regard to expressing political views in offline settings publicly, one form of public political expression refers to individuals using bumper stickers for showing. al. n. v i n C hfor an organization,Uspreading the message of an their faithfulness to and support engchi interest group, and displaying candidate preferences in a campaign (Endersby &. Towle, 1996). Stanyer (2005) broadened the notion of political expression to the extent and said that it is no longer confined to certain events such as elections nor does it necessarily require the co-presence of others. The public can express its views on political matters via media outlets and new technologies. In addition to offline political expression among the public, the Internet has facilitated information exchange between users in expressing public opinions (Gil de Zúñiga &Valenzuela, 2011). As interactive features of the Internet were substantiated and expanded by the development of Web 2.0 technology, new online methods of 17.

(25) opinion sharing have emerged in addition to well-established online interactive methods such as e-mail, instant messaging, electronic bulletin boards, and online chats (Jung et al., 2011). Shah, Cho, Eveland, & Kwak (2005) contended that the Internet has in fact transformed the “expressive potential of the average citizens” (p. 536) by providing individuals with low-cost opportunities for broad, public expression. Without temporal or geographical limitations, the Internet can dramatically reduce the costs of maintaining a larger social network (Gil de Zúñiga &Valenzuela, 2011). Gil de Zúñiga,Veenstra, Vraga, & Shah (2010) supported that the. 政治大 express views to elected officials and established journalists. Thus, the ease of 立 Internet may also bring elites and the public closer together, making it easier to. communication on the Internet has especially lowered the cost of online political. ‧ 國. 學. expression.. ‧. Gil de Zúñiga et al. (2013) agreed that online expressive behaviors through. sit. y. Nat. SNS allowed for the sharing of, and commenting on, ideas, which is comparable to. io. er. the real-time nature of offline interpersonal political talks. Besides traditional forms of online political communication like chatting online, SNS provides more dynamic. al. n. v i n political expression (YamamotoCet al. , 2013). Moving h e n g c h i U beyond a traditional form of offline political discussion and online political chat, SNS offer users opportunities to express political ideas through different forms of context such as text, graphics, and videos. Also, the expressive potential of the average netizens has been transformed, with interactive features of news feeds on SNS as Facebook which allows one’s political expression to be shared with a networked audience simultaneously (Gil de Zúñiga, Molyneux, & Zheng, 2014). SNS enables users to “post, at minimal cost, messages and images that can be viewed instantly by global audiences” (Lupia & Sin, 2003, p.316). With its networked audience, SNS allows users to interweave the private world of family, friends, and personal life with the public sphere of politics 18.

(26) when making public their personal political expression on these sites (Papacharissi, 2009; Valenzuela, 2013). As Bimber et al. (2005) said, it’s “a set of communication processes involving the crossing of boundaries between private and public life” (p. 367). Research about online political expression via SNS for promoting political behaviors has grown significantly in recent years. On the expression of political opinions on blogs, Jung et al. (2011) showed that online political expression such as posting blog posts and comments about current issues and public affair is positively. 政治大 variables of using social media for political expression, including expressing an 立 correlated to offline political participation. Valenzuela (2013) also examined the. opinion on political issues and/or public affairs in Chile. The result showed that the. ‧ 國. 學. use of political expression can lead to participatory behaviors. Gil de Zúñiga et al.. ‧. (2014) also supported that political expression via SNS is the strongest predictor for. y. Nat. offline political participation compared to SNS use for news and social interactions.. er. io. sit. Building on prior studies, we operationalize “Facebook political expression” as an individual expressing an opinion on political issues or public affairs via. al. n. v i n C hto their political U Facebook, when the content relates views, interests or participation. engchi Facebook users could express themselves politically in various forms such as posting. personal experiences or thoughts related to politics or campaigns, posting or sharing photos or videos about politics, forwarding someone else’s political commentary to other people, and discussing politics with others. For instance, if users attempt to express their support for gay marriage, they can post updated statuses about their views, share articles that support their views, or changing profile pictures with the symbol of gay marriage. Given the networked nature of SNSs, online political expression might also spark political participation with less politically engaged peers. 19.

(27) Based on previous literature, this study proposes that H1: Political expression on Facebook is positively correlated to political participation.. 2.2.3 Connection with political actors on Facebook Facebook offers a platform that allows for constant interactions on an individual’s profile page. In other words, anyone who is “friending” other individuals may see his or her profile, post messages on the profile wall, and even comment on. 政治大 interpersonal communication, it is also popular for forging connections with political 立. his or her pictures and videos. Although Facebook often serves as a venue for. figures, some of such accounts still possess millions of followers (Stever & Lawson,. ‧ 國. 學. 2013). Celebrities create a profile on Facebook and exchange messages with their. ‧. followers and they may present themselves as an approachable, down-to-earth person. sit. y. Nat. (Lee & Jang, 2011). The news feed of Facebook enables political figures to broadcast. io. er. political content to networked audiences online through which they can reduce psychological distance and establish personal rapport with voters (Utz, 2009).. al. n. v i n Cthat Facebook appears to be a forum for the possibility that fans might better h eallows ngchi U know the celebrities whom they follow.. According to PEW (2014), the major reason why users follow political figures on SNS is to find out about political news before other people do (41 %), which is followed by other reasons like feeling more personally connected with political candidates or groups (35%), and getting more reliable information than what is available from traditional news organizations (26%). Another research conducted by Pew Research Center survey during the lead-up to the 2014 midterm election showed that 16% of registered voters follow candidates for office, political parties, or elected officials on a social networking site. 20.

(28) In Taiwan’s 2012 presidential election, the changing way Taiwanese connect with politicians on Facebook pages is especially notable. Both the incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou and challenger Tsai Ing-wen set up Facebook pages and employed them as an election campaigning tool to access the potential voters. The number incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou reached was 1,324,876, while the challenger Tsai Ing-wen was 621,562 (Hill, 2012). Compared to the population of Taiwan at about 23 million, these two figures demonstrate that Facebook played a significant role for political figures in Taiwan. Y.-J. Chen (2013) conducted a study on. 政治大 the 2011 election periods and the 2012 regular legislative sessions. He found that no 立 Taiwanese legislators’ communication strategies to reach their potential voters during. matter it’s during election time or legislators’ terms of office, these candidates posted. ‧ 國. 學. political information and shared their daily life. Chen suggested that although the. ‧. strategy of using Facebook seems to be more effective than traditional media,. sit. y. Nat. legislators should improve the two-way communication with potential voters rather. io. er. than just making up candidate images and distributing information.. Taken together, these political figures’ profile or fan pages, which provides an. al. n. v i n opportunity for interaction withCpolitical figures, appears h e n g c h i U to encourage an increased. sense of intimacy with the political actors. Moreover, the survey on Hong Kong university students found that the connection with public political actors on Facebook could enhance their political participation (Tang & Lee, 2013). Tang & Lee (2013) contended that building connections with political figures on Facebook can engage people in political participation. Such activity raises theoretical questions that how the interaction between the public figures and their followers on Facebook affects individuals’ political and civic behaviors. In Taiwan, Wang (2013) also found that those who are befriending candidates through adding them as Facebook friends, following them, or joining their fan pages are more likely to vote during the 2012 21.

(29) presidential election. Vitak et al. (2011) suggested that future research should also investigate whether individuals who are exposed to more politically active network members develop or explore civic skills and cognitive engagement with political processes, as well as whether certain members of users’ Friend network (i.e., Katz and Lazarsfeld’s ‘‘opinion leaders’’) have a greater impact on political participation. Opinion leaders were defined as the individuals who were likely to influence others’ opinions, attitudes, beliefs, motivations, and behaviors of others through their representative. 政治大 leadership on Twitter for political engagement, he found that opinion leaders on 立. opinions (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955). Park (2013) investigated the role of opinion. Facebook are expected to motivate Facebook users to get them involved in political. ‧ 國. 學. activities. Compare to traditional opinion leadership of “two-step flow” process. ‧. introduced by Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955), he proposed that Twitter opinion leaders. sit. y. Nat. engage in a multi-step process, because messages on Twitter tend to be disseminated. io. er. through numerous intermediary channels. Facebook is also a fruitful soil for opinion leadership formation. It provides an easy communication tool that enables any. al. n. v i n C h about their activities, individual user to share information opinions, and status. Those engchi U who are highly-connected on Facebook would play a more potential role in creating and distributing information through a multi-step flow.. Based on previous literature, this study proposes that H 2: Connection with public political actors is positively correlated to political participation.. 22.

(30) 2.3 Psychological and behavioral antecedents of political participation In this thesis, a series of psychological and behavior antecedents of political participation are used as control variables in the analysis. Specifically, the researcher employed political efficacy, partisanship, news media use (newspaper and TV), and political discussion. The first important psychological political factor is political efficacy. Political efficacy was originally taken as a unidimensional concept, which refers to the belief that an individual’s political action does or can make an impact on political matters (Campbell, et al., 1960). The concept of political efficacy has been. 政治大 efficacy (Campbell et al.1954; Lane, 1959). Internal efficacy refers to whether one 立. differentiated into two-dimensional concepts including internal efficacy and external. beliefs in one's own ability to understand and participate in politics; while external. ‧ 國. 學. efficacy refers to whether one sees the political system (government officials and. ‧. institutions) as responsive to public demands. Past studies have demonstrated the. sit. y. Nat. positive impact of internal and external efficacy on political participation (i.e.. io. er. Cambell, Converse, Miller, Stokes, 1960; Verba & Nie,1974). However, some activists achieved political changes through coordination with others and advocacy. al. n. v i n a broader level thanCthe individual. LeeU(2006) hengchi. groups at. argued that individual. citizens hold different opinions regarding the capabilities of the group as a collective actor. Further refinements were suggested adding another dimension: collective efficacy, “a citizens’ belief in the capabilities of the public as a collective actor to achieve social and political outcomes” (Lee, 2006, p.299). Studies found that the collective culture would play an important role in collective societies similar to internal efficacy in individual societies (Lam et al., 2002; Lee, 2006). For instance, in Lee’s study on Hong Kong society, he found that citizens have a high level of collective efficacy. Also, there were consistent and significant relationships between collective efficacy and participating in rallies and voting in elections. Taiwan, one of 23.

(31) Chinese societies, was seen as a collectivist culture. Therefore, the study attempts to differentiate political efficacy into three concepts to examine their relationship with political participation. In this thesis, the researcher differentiates political efficacy into three dimensions to examine their separate impact on offline political participation. The next political variable which the researcher considers is partisanship, the definition of partisanship refers to long-term psychological attachment with a given party, in the form of shared attitudes and beliefs (Campbell et al., 1960). The strength of one’s party identification was proven to promote voting and other political. 政治大 Election and Democratization Study (Teds) during 2002 to 2004, Hsiao (2009) found 立 participation (Verbal et al., 1995; Hsiao, 2009). Based on the data from Taiwan's. that those who have a higher level of partisanship, they are more likely to be involved. ‧ 國. 學. with political activities, political efficacy, and voting to those candidates who. ‧. belonged to their identified parties. To measure the concept of partisanship, it arrays. sit. y. Nat. the attachment towards a party in a two-party system5 on a one-dimensional scale,. io. er. which the middle point is the independent voter (Tsai & Chao, 2008). Those who consider themselves as independent voters indicate that they had a predisposition not. al. n. v i n to identify with or be bound to aC political party (Miller, h e n g c h i UA. H., & Wattenberg, 1983).. In addition to political psychological antecedents, media exposure is expected. to shape offline political participation. Many studies examined the relationship between media use and offline political participation. However, various kinds of media have a differing effect on offline political participation. Newspaper is particularly a strong predictor or traditional participation. Past research has demonstrated a positive relationship between newspaper reading and political participation (Scheufele, & Moy, 1999; Norris, 1996; Shah et al., 2001). Furthermore, 5. In Taiwan’s political system, The Pan-Green alliance and Pan-Blue alliance are two major political alliances in Taiwan. Pan-Blue alliance includes KMT, People’s First Party ,and New Party, .etc. Pan-Green alliance includes DPP, Taiwan Solidarity Union .etc. 24.

(32) Shah et al. (2001) found this positive relationship to hold across all generations, including young people who are much less likely to read newspapers. Eveland & Scheufele (2000) argued that exposure to certain types of media, particularly newspapers, encourages people to reason with issues or about the role of government, this can increase the level of citizens’ political knowledge and efficacy, and then indirectly heighten political participation. However, Putnam (1995) proposed that media, particularly television, actually deprived people of time spending engaging in political or civic activities. Television. 政治大 consistently found to increase. viewing have been accused of being the culprits for civic disengagement, whereas newspaper reading has been. 立. civic and political. necessarily impede individuals’ civic and political activities.. 學. ‧ 國. participation. In short, past research illustrates that media consumption does not. ‧. Also, scholars suggested that it is not time spent with media that matters but. sit. y. Nat. the specific types of media content that influence citizens’ civic and political. io. er. participation (i.e. Valenzuela et al., 2009). Shah et al. (2001) added that the varied functions served by media and multiple motives of media users should be considered. al. n. v i n civicCand political participation. h e n g c h i U For. in exerting influence on. instance, although. viewing TV programs, such as science fictions and reality shows, has been found to be negatively related to political participation, long hours of exposure and attention to public affairs programs on television have actually been found to enhance political participation (McLeod et al., 1999; Norris, 1996). Frequency of usage may not enhance political participation. However, it is usage that specifically related politics or public affairs is more likely to promote political participation. Therefore, the researcher measured the concept of media use specifically on political news use. In general, television shares a less consistent relationship with offline political participation compared to newspaper. In addition to news media use, discussing 25.

(33) politics face to face with family or friends is considered an important factor promoting offline political participation. Various studies have linked offline political discussion with participatory behavior (i.e. McLeod et al., 1999).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 26. i n U. v.

(34) Chapter 3 Methodology The purpose of this thesis was to examine three forms of political activities on Facebook, namely, Facebook use for political information, Facebook use for political expression, and connection with public political actors on Facebook in relation to offline political participation among the youth of 18 to 35 years of age (As Figure 3.1).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 3.1 Research Model. 3.1 Sampling and Data Collection The empirical study was based on an online questionnaire distributed among the youth of 18 to 35 years old in Taiwan. The age of sampling was chosen because the 2012 white paper of Youth Development Administration (YDA) defined the youth as the individuals at the age range of 15 to 35. Also, their target audience of the programs of public participation is the youth aged 18 to 35. The online questionnaire 27.

(35) survey was chosen as the research method for this study. The survey on TWNIC (2012) identified Internet users’ different usage patterns based on demographic backgrounds. They found that the proportion of Taiwanese who used the Internet was much higher among young generations (99.72% among those aged 20 to 24). Besides, the thesis aimed to examine young adults’ Facebook use and offline political participation. Dillman (2000) pointed that if the theme of the survey is related to Internet use, an online questionnaire survey is an alternative choice to traditional random sampling. Also, considering that the survey’s target sample is Taiwanese. 政治大 By distributing the questionnaire online, the researcher hoped to find out how 立. youth aged 18 to 35, an online survey is more likely to access these young adults.. Facebook’s political activities influence political participation among these young. ‧ 國. 學. adults. The data collection was conducted via Survey Monkey. The researcher created. ‧. the questionnaire and shared the web link (URL) to get responses from target. sit. y. Nat. respondents. The online survey was distributed via multiple platforms such as Bulletin. io. er. Board System (BBS) and the Facebook fan pages or clubs of universities considering that almost every college has their platform for information exchange on BBS and. al. n. v i n Facebook. However, one mainCissue needing attention h e n g c h i U is the low response rate of. participants due to lack of incentives. To overcome the problem of incentivizing respondents, the respondents were incentivized to join the random lucky draws and fifteen of them could be awarded the prizes of NT$100 7-11 gift certificate that researcher would provide.. 28.

(36) 3.2 Measurement All measurement of variables are discussed as followed: Offline political participation was measured by six items adapted from Andolina, Keeter, Zukin, & Jenkins (2003) and Willnat & Aw (2014). Respondents were asked whether during the past 12 months they (1) attended a public hearing or policy seminar; (2) contacted official or political actors via telephone or e-mail; (3) signed a hard copy petition on politics or public affairs; (4) attended a public rally or electoral campaign; (5) participated in any demonstrations, protests, or marches; (6). 政治大 Voting was not included though, since some of the respondents had not reached the 立. been involved in public interest groups, political action groups, and party committees.. voting age. Answers were recorded as 1 = never, 2= seldom, 3=sometimes, 4=often,. ‧ 國. 學. and 5 = always so that the higher the number, the more citizens participated in politics.. ‧. Responses to each statement were added into a single index (Cronbachα=.859;. sit. y. Nat. M=9.04; SD=3.87；range = 6 to 30).. io. er. Facebook use for political information was measured by two items, which were adapted from Gil de Zúñiga, Jung & Valenzuela (2012) and Wu (2013). The. al. n. v i n C h estimation, registered scale was the average of respondents' by a 5-point scale, with engchi U 1=never, 5=always: (1) I get informed about political issues and current events from. Facebook Friends' posts of news, articles, or the videos.; (2) I search for information about political issues and current events from Facebook Friends, Fan pages, or clubs. Answers were recorded as 1 = never, 2= seldom, 3=sometimes, 4=often, and 5 = always. Responses to each statement were added into a single index (r=.737; M=6.85; SD=1.75; range = 2 to 10). Facebook use for political expression was operationalized as an individual expressing an opinion on political issues or public affairs via Facebook, when the content relates to their political views, interests or participation. The concept was 29.

(37) measured by three items adapted from Kushin & Yamamoto (2010). The scale asked respondents to indicate their agreement level with the following statements: Facebook use helped me (1) to post personal experiences or thoughts related to politics or public affair; (2) to post or share photos or videos about politics; (3) to discuss politics with others by leaving the comments under the posts or sending the private messages. Answers were recorded as 1 = never, 2= seldom, 3=sometimes, 4=often, and 5 = always. Responses to each statement were added into a single index (Cronbachα =.861; M=9.21；SD=3.58; range = 3 to 15).. 政治大 measured by asking the respondents whether they connected with public political 立. Connecting with public political actors, adapted from Tang &Lee (2013) ,was. actors through adding them as Facebook friends, following them, or joining their fan. ‧ 國. 學. pages such as (1) legislatives; (2) social movement activists; (3) media commentators;. ‧. (4) government officials. On each item, the respondents could indicate none, one to. sit. y. Nat. three, four to six, seven to nine, ten or above. And then, the respondents were asked. io. er. what proportion of them were taken as opinion leaders. The answers were summed up to form a 4–20 index (Cronbach α=.757; M=6.07; SD=0.98).. al. n. v i n C hdefined a numberUof variables researcher engchi. In addition, the. that may affect. Taiwanese youth’ political participation as control variables. The control variables comprise of demographic variables (gender, age, educational level, and income), daily hours spent on Facebook, media use (TV and newspaper use) and political antecedent variables (internal/ external/ collective efficacy and party identification), as these are variables that the literature has found to be related to offline political participation (i.e. Verbal et al., 1995). Thus, these variables were introduced as controls to isolate potential confounding effects and present the most stringent model possible. Political efficacy refers to the belief that one can make a difference on political matters. Some researchers have differentiated the concept into the internal, external, 30.

(38) and collective dimensions (i.e. Lee, 2006). Internal efficacy refers to whether one believes in one’s own ability to understand and participate in politics. Respondents were asked to indicate their agreement level with the following statement: “(1) Although politics and the government seem so complicated, a person like me still can really understand what’s going on,” and "(2) I have enough knowledge to discuss political issues or join political affairs." The variable was measured on a five-point scale where 1 meant “strongly disagree” and 5 meant “strongly agree.” (r=.763; M=6.98; SD=1.68,. 政治大 Collective efficacy refers to the belief in the capability of the general public to act 立. range=2 to 10). collectively to effect social change and is defined as perceptions of self-competence in. ‧ 國. 學. regards to political and public affairs. “(1) Taiwanese collective action can change the. ‧. society,” and "(2) Taiwanese collective action can affect the development of public. y. Nat. affair." The variable was measured on a five-point scale where 1 meant “strongly. er. io. sit. disagree” and 5 meant “strongly agree.” (r=.813; M=7.6; SD=1.68; range=2 to 10) External efficacy refers to whether one sees the political system as responsive to. al. n. v i n C h asked to indicateUtheir agreement level with the public demands. Respondents were engchi. following statement: Respondents were asked to indicate their agreement level with the following statement: “(1) Taiwan political system can effectively react to public opinion,” and "(2) Taiwan government can effectively react to public opinion." The variables were measured on a five-point scale where 1 meant “strongly disagree” and 5 meant “strongly agree.” (r=.818; M=4.55; SD=1.68; range=2 to 10) Partisanship, adapted from Taiwan's Election and Democratization Study, refers to the long-term psychological attachment with a given party, in the form of shared attitudes and beliefs the tendency to support a particular group, cause, or viewpoint over another (Campbell et al., 1960). The respondents are asked whether 31.

(39) they support any particular political party including KMT, DPP, New Party, People's First Party, Taiwan Solidarity Union, and other parties, or they are non-partisanship. Among these items, KMT, New Party, People's First Party was recoded as 1=pan-blue; DPP and Taiwan Solidarity Union was recoded as 2=pan-green; If the answers are “supporting none of the parties,” “refuse to answer,” “other parties”, respondents are recoded as 3=political independence. Demographic variables such as age, gender, income, and educational level, were served as control variables in this study.. 政治大 basis. It was measured by asking the respondents to report on the amount of time they 立. Time spent on Facebook refers to average hours spent on Facebook on a daily. meaning “6 hours or above” (M=3.38; SD=1.75) .. 學. ‧ 國. spent on FB daily using a scale of 1-7, with 1 meaning “less than half an hour”, and 7. ‧. News Media use combined two media attributes: the frequency and attention. sit. y. Nat. of TV and newspaper use. Frequency of media use was measured with a single item. io. er. asking respondents to rate a 5-point scale (where 1=never and 5=always) how often they used the newspaper and TV to get information about current events, public issues,. al. n. v i n C hto how much attention or politics. Media attention refers he or she pays to news on engchi U. TV and newspapers on a 5-point scale where 1 meant “very low” to 5 meant “very high.” Media frequency and attention were then summoned (M=11.83; SD=2.98; range=4 to 20). Political discussion was a measure with a single item asking respondents how often they talked about politics face to face with family or friends. The items are measured by a 5-point scale, where 1 meant “never”, 5 meant “always” (M=11.83; SD=2.98; range=4 to 20).. 32.

(40) Table 3.1 Descriptive statistics of construct Construct. Internal reliability. M. SD. Range. Adapted from. Political Participation. .859. 9.04. 3.87. 5 to 30. Andolina, Keeter, Zukin, & Jenkins (2003) and Willnat & Aw (2014). Facebook use for political information. .737. 6.85. 1.75. 2 to10. Gil de Zúñiga, Jung & Valenzuela (2012) and Wu (2013). Facebook use for political expression. .861. 9.21. 3.58. 3 to 15. Kushin & Yamamoto (2010). Connection with political actors. .656. 6.07. 2.6. Internal efficacy. .763. 6.98. 1.68. 2 to 10. .813. 7.6. 1.6. 2 to 10. .818. 4.55. 1.68. 2 to 10. ‧ 國. Lee( 2006). io. sit. y. Nat. Factor Analysis. Lee( 2006). n. al. er. efficacy. Lee( 2006). ‧. External. Tang & Lee (2013). 學. Collective efficacy. 立. 4 to 20 治政大. i n U. v. Two confirmatory factor analyses were performed to determine if the two. Ch. engchi. political activities on Facebook and the three forms of political efficacy were distinct from each other and whether the items measuring each of these variables were distinct from each other and that the items measuring each of these variables reflected the expected common underlying processes. It was expected that these analyses would identify two factors related to political activities on Facebook and three factors related to political efficacy. The results were presented in Table 3.2. The researcher included all six items comprising two dependent measures, namely Facebook use for information and Facebook use for expression. As expected, the items of political activities on 33.

青年臉書使用與政治參與之關聯性研究: 論臉書政治資訊性使用、政治表達性使用、以及 與政治人物連結之角色 - 政大學術集成

青年臉書使用與政治參與之關聯性研究: 論臉書政治資訊性使用、政治表達性使用、以及與政治人物連結之角色 - 政大學術集成