The Influence of Social Networking Sites on
Political Behavior: Modeling Political
Involvement via Online and Offline Activity
Tonghoon Kim, David J. Atkin, and Carolyn A. Lin
Since the Democrats were successful in using social networking sites (SNSs) to
mobilize support among voters in the 2008 Presidential election (e.g., Charles,
2012), social networking sites emerged as a major political campaign message
dissemination tool (e.g., Robertson & Vatrapu, 2010). Political campaign applications for online services show great promise, owing to their ability to harness young
people’s eagerness to fulfill such gratifications as entertainment, even in civic life
(Hunt, Atkin, & Krishnan, 2012; Shah, Kwak, & Holbert, 2001). The key role played
by social networking sites in the “Arab spring,” in particular, underscores the need to
study predictors of SNS use for political purposes (Mansour, 2012). boyd and Ellison
(2007, p. 221) define social networking sites as a “set of Web-based services that
allows individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded
system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, (3)
view and transverse their list of connections and those made by others within their
system.”
On the domestic front, past work uncovers relationships between social network
service uses and political activities (Zhang, Johnson, Seltzer, & Bichard, 2010). Over
the past decade, social media have become an effective channel for delivering
political messages and appeals directly to voters (Hayes, 2008; Rainie, 2008).
Furthermore, the political platform presented by social network services enables
users to express and access political information in real time (Kushin & Yamamoto,
2010). Young adults, who can adapt to new media environments more readily than
other age groups, are reported to increase their political efficacy by exchanging
Tonghoon Kim (M.A., Yonsei University, Seoul) is a...