社群媒體對選民政治態度及政治參與之影響

Abstract

社群媒體在現代生活中扮演重要位置，它使得資訊得以快速傳播，人類的生活及溝通型態不僅因此快速轉變，也使得傳統媒體環境發生劇烈變化，幾乎所有的調查分析都指向新媒體的市場占有率不斷攀升。從過去研究可見，媒體的使用頻率對民眾的政治態度及政治參與有著程度不同的關聯，社群媒體此一新興媒介又會如何影響政治態度與行為。 本文透過量化分析發現，社群媒體不同政治性使用型態對政治態度及政治參與有著不同程度影響：社群媒體政治性使用型態為「觀看」、或「透過線上訊息參與政治活動」的頻率越高，民眾的政治態度則越被正向增強；政治態度越高的民眾，也越傾向進行連署、示威遊行、抗議等非常規性政治參與。然而，當社群媒體政治性使用為「發文」，則其使用頻率越高，可直接導向更多的非常規性政治參與。 僅管社群媒體的政治性使用確實可正向強化政治態度，卻不盡然落實到政治參與之行為層面：針對常規性政治參與，也就是投票行為，仍是黨性佔了重要地位，顯示政黨認同才是最後觸動民眾前往投票的關鍵因素。

Social media is an important aspect of the modern life. It enables information to spread quickly, which not only has rapidly changed the ways people live and communicate but also has brought drastic changes to the traditional media environment. Almost all surveys and analyses indicate that the market share of new media has continued to rise. It is evident from past studies that the frequency of media use correlates to people’s political attitudes and political participation to different extents; how will the emerging medium of social media influence voter’s political attitudes and behaviors? Through quantitative research, this study discovers that different types of political use of social media have different degrees of influence on political attitudes and political participation: when political use of social media is “viewing” or “engagement in political activities through online information,” the higher the frequency, the more positively reinforced people’s political attitudes will be; people with stronger political attitudes are more inclined to partake in unconventional political participation, such as petition, demonstration, and protest. However, when the political use of social media is “posting,” higher frequency will directly lead to more unconventional political participation. Although the political use of social media does positively reinforce political attitudes, it does not necessarily lead to political participation: regarding conventional political participation, or in other words voting, partisanship still plays an important role, which shows that party identification is the key factor that ultimately drives people to vote.