Abstract

Scholars have often used generational changes in citizenship norms to theorize new forms of youth political expression on social media. Public opinion data has been employed to demonstrate that young people’s perceptions of what it means to be a “good citizen” (i.e., injunctive citizenship norms) have shifted toward models of citizenship that value self-expression. Yet several fundamental assumptions of this dominant image of the young “expressive citizen” remain untested. Using data from a national survey of young Americans (ages 18–24) collected during the 2018 US midterm election, the present study examines: a) if youth indeed view expression as a relatively important part of being a good citizen; and b) if injunctive norms concerning political expression are positively associated with engagement in political expression on social media. Findings indicate that injunctive expressive norms are distinct, but rated as the least important of all injunctive norms. Further, injunctive expressive norms were only modestly associated with social media political expression and difficult to empirically distinguish from what respondents viewed as personally important (i.e., personal expressive norms). While these findings challenge the way past research has theorized and measured the normative role of political expression among young people, they also reveal promising future directions. Specifically, the finding that traditionally marginalized youth place more normative value on political self-expression suggests an important next step for studying the expressive citizen in the age of social media.

中文翻译：

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在社交媒体上寻找富有表现力的公民规范和青年政治表达

摘要

学者们经常利用公民身份规范的代代变化来理论化社交媒体上青年政治表达的新形式。舆论数据已被用来证明年轻人对“好公民”的含义的理解（即禁令性公民规范）已经转向重视自我表达的公民模型。然而，这种年轻的“表达公民”的主导形象的几个基本假设仍未得到检验。本研究使用在2018年美国中期选举期间收集的一项针对美国年轻人（18至24岁）的全国调查得出的数据，调查：b）与政治表达有关的禁令与在社交媒体上参与政治表达有正相关关系。在所有禁令中最不重要。此外，禁令性表达规范仅与社交媒体的政治表达适度相关，并且难以从经验上与受访者认为对个人重要的区别（即个人表达规范）。尽管这些发现挑战了以往研究理论化和衡量年轻人中政治表达的规范作用的方式，但它们也揭示了有希望的未来方向。特别是，传统上被边缘化的年轻人在政治自我表达上具有更多规范性价值的发现，为研究社交媒体时代的表现型公民迈出了重要的下一步。