Social media for civic participation
Social media sites provide internet-based tools that individuals and groups can use to receive news, communicate or share information, collaborate on ideas, mobilize networks, and make collective decisions.
Expected Beneficial Outcomes (Rated)
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Increased civic participation
Other Potential Beneficial Outcomes
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Increased social capital
Evidence of Effectiveness
There is some evidence that social media use increases civic participation (Bond 2012, Effing 2011, CTSA-2011, Lee G, Kwak YH. An open government maturity model for social media-based public engagement. Government Information Quarterly. 2012;29(4):492–503.
Link to original source (journal subscription may be required for access)Lee 2012, Picazo-Vela S, Gutiérrez-Martínez I, Luna-Reyes LF. Understanding risks, benefits, and strategic alternatives of social media applications in the public sector. Government Information Quarterly. 2012;29(4):504–11.
Link to original source (journal subscription may be required for access)Picazo-Vela 2012) and personalized social media messages increase individual political expression (e.g., voting) and voter turnout (Bond 2012).
Online interaction between individuals who have a face-to-face relationship appears to lead to greater increases in civic participation than interactions between individuals without strong offline relationships (Bond 2012). Engaging with others via social media can encourage young people to become engaged citizens (Culver 2012).
Individuals who use social media sites as a news source may increase levels of social capital as well as online and offline political participation (Gil de Zúñiga H, Jung N, Valenzuela S. Social media use for news and individuals' social capital, civic engagement and political participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 2012;17(3):319-336.
Link to original source (journal subscription may be required for access)Gil de Zuniga 2012). Participation in political groups on social media sites has also been associated with increased political participation offline (Conroy M, Feezell JT, Guerrero M. Facebook and political engagement: A study of online political group membership and offline political engagement. Computers in Human Behavior. 2012;28(5):1535–46.
Link to original source (journal subscription may be required for access)Conroy 2012, Vesnic-Alujevic L. Political participation and web 2.0 in Europe: A case study of Facebook. Public Relations Review. 2012;38(3):466–70.
Link to original source (journal subscription may be required for access)Vesnic-Alujevic 2012).
Impact on Disparities
No impact on disparities likely
Implementation Examples
In 2015, 61% of millennials (aged 18-33) reported receiving news about politics and government from Facebook (Pew-Mitchell 2015). Social media tools, such as Facebook, are available on the internet anywhere in the country. Examples of tools focused on civic engagement and participation include the Wisconsin-focused political blog, WisOpinion (WisOpinion-Blog), and the Missouri political blog, PoliticMo (Yokley-PoliticMo).
Implementation Resources
MRSC-Citizen participation - Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington (MRSC). Communication and citizen participation techniques.
Citations - Evidence
* Journal subscription may be required for access.
CTSA-2011 - Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA). Principles of community engagement. Bethesda: National Institutes of Health (NIH); 2011.
Lee 2012* - Lee G, Kwak YH. An open government maturity model for social media-based public engagement. Government Information Quarterly. 2012;29(4):492–503.
Picazo-Vela 2012* - Picazo-Vela S, Gutiérrez-Martínez I, Luna-Reyes LF. Understanding risks, benefits, and strategic alternatives of social media applications in the public sector. Government Information Quarterly. 2012;29(4):504–11.
Culver 2012 - Culver SH, Jacobson T. Media literacy and its use as a method to encourage civic engagement. Comunicar: Scientific Journal of Media Education. 2012;20(39):73–80.
Conroy 2012* - Conroy M, Feezell JT, Guerrero M. Facebook and political engagement: A study of online political group membership and offline political engagement. Computers in Human Behavior. 2012;28(5):1535–46.
Vesnic-Alujevic 2012* - Vesnic-Alujevic L. Political participation and web 2.0 in Europe: A case study of Facebook. Public Relations Review. 2012;38(3):466–70.
Effing 2011 - Effing R, Hillegersberg J van, Huibers T. Social media and political participation: Are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube democratizing our political systems? In: Tambouris E, Macintosh A, de Bruijn H, eds. Electronic Participation. Springer; 2011:25-35.
Bond 2012 - Bond RM, Fariss CJ, Jones JJ, et al. A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization. Nature. 2012;489(7415):295-298.
Gil de Zuniga 2012* - Gil de Zúñiga H, Jung N, Valenzuela S. Social media use for news and individuals' social capital, civic engagement and political participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 2012;17(3):319-336.
Citations - Implementation Examples
* Journal subscription may be required for access.
WisOpinion-Blog - WisOpinion. Political blog index.
Pew-Mitchell 2015 - Mitchell A, Gottfried J, Matsa KE. Millennials and political news: Social media - the local TV for the next generation? Washington, DC: Pew Research Center; 2015.
Yokley-PoliticMo - Yokley E. PoliticMo: Missouri news, politics, opinions.
Date Last Updated
- Scientifically Supported: Strategies with this rating are most likely to make a difference. These strategies have been tested in many robust studies with consistently positive results.
- Some Evidence: Strategies with this rating are likely to work, but further research is needed to confirm effects. These strategies have been tested more than once and results trend positive overall.
- Expert Opinion: Strategies with this rating are recommended by credible, impartial experts but have limited research documenting effects; further research, often with stronger designs, is needed to confirm effects.
- Insufficient Evidence: Strategies with this rating have limited research documenting effects. These strategies need further research, often with stronger designs, to confirm effects.
- Mixed Evidence: Strategies with this rating have been tested more than once and results are inconsistent or trend negative; further research is needed to confirm effects.
- Evidence of Ineffectiveness: Strategies with this rating are not good investments. These strategies have been tested in many robust studies with consistently negative and sometimes harmful results.