Document details

#Democracy: Social Media Use and Democratic Legitimacy in Central and Eastern Europe

Democratization, volume 24, issue 4 (2017), pp. 632-650

ISSN 1743-890X

"While other studies have shown that mass media can influence a person's attitudes and opinions in the region, none has explored what effect social media can have on orientations toward democracy in the region. In the following paper, I build several hypotheses based on previous studies of media effects and democratic survival. I then employ survey data to empirically test whether social media increases support for democracy. The study finds that not only does using social media increase support for democracy, but also simple usage rather than information seeking provides more consistent effects on a person's support for democracy in CEE." (Abstract)