ABSTRACT

This research examines how race moderates the association between social media news consumption and political participation. Through an analysis of Pew Research Center survey data, this study finds that social networking sites (SNS) are crucial for racial minorities’ political participation. Racial minorities showed a higher level of SNS usage for news consumption, and Black people exhibited significantly higher levels of online political participation than White people, especially when SNS news consumption was at a low frequency. Yet the association between SNS news use and online participation was stronger for White people than Black people. In contrast, this research did not find a significant racial gap in offline voting engagement nor extra democratic benefits of SNS news consumption for racial minorities.

摘要

本研究探讨种族如何调节社交媒体新闻消费与政治参与之间的关联。通过对皮尤研究中心调查数据的分析，本研究发现社交网站（SNS）对于少数族裔的政治参与至关重要。少数族裔对新闻消费的 SNS 使用水平更高，黑人的在线政治参与水平明显高于白人，尤其是在 SNS 新闻消费频率较低的情况下。然而，白人使用 SNS 新闻与在线参与之间的关联比黑人强。相比之下，这项研究没有发现线下投票参与方面存在显着的种族差异，也没有发现 SNS 新闻消费对少数族裔的额外民主好处。