"Social media influencers promote not only products and brands but also their opinions on serious topics like party politics or climate change. These so-called digital opinion leaders may exert a powerful impact on their followers’ political attitudes. Accordingly, we explore new directions to exp
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lain how influencers’ communication is related to political outcomes by proposing the concept of perceived simplification of politics (PSP). We argue that PSP may fuel political cynicism but also stimulate youth’s interest in politics. We also explore important boundary conditions of these associations. We use data from three studies, a two-wave panel survey of adolescents (NT2 =294), a cross-sectional survey of young adults (N=632), and a two-wave panel survey of young adults (NT2=496) in Germany between 2019 and 2020. Findings of all three studies show that the frequency of exposure to social media influencers’ content increases PSP. In Studies 1 and 2, PSP is related to higher political cynicism, while in Study 3, this relationship is restricted to influencers’ communication about environmental topics and gender equality. Furthermore, Studies 2 and 3 suggest that PSP also increases political interest—yet this association requires a certain level of parasocial interaction (PSI) with the influencer and is contingent on specific political topics." (Abstract)
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"El retroceso económico causado por la pandemia no define a la región, sino simplemente acentúa sus características. En otras palabras, en América Latina se han robustecido las razones por las cuales sus pueblos han estado en las calles de sus ciudades, como refleja esta medición 2020 de Latin
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obarómetro, realizada en plena pandemia. Los resultados muestran que no hay ilusión, no se ha disipado el malestar anterior, sino que parece reafirmarse la decisión de no ceder en la demanda de una vida mejor. En este escenario, todas las demandas se vuelven más inelásticas. La pandemia puso en el celular de cada persona, las redes sociales y a través de las pantallas de la televisión, la imagen del mundo, como viven y son tratados los ciudadanos en otras partes del planeta. Se universalizó la demanda de “¡Dignidad Ya!”. El aumento de la conexión de Internet produce una revolución social al enseñarle al más analfabeto de los ciudadanos de la región, que lo tratan mal, que es discriminado, que tiene derechos y que puede reclamarlos. En ese sentido, la pandemia termina siendo una lección de humanidad y de democracia, del derecho a ser tratado como igual, toda vez que cada persona observa cómo funcionan las sociedades en otras latitudes. Por primera vez masivamente, el ciudadano toma consciencia de su condición y aprende qué hacer con ella." (Página 5-6)
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"The deepening of democracy in developing regions requires that individuals support their political systems not only through democratic behaviours but also through the continual strengthening of democratic attitudes. Traditional news media have long held a favoured position when it comes to understa
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nding democracy. Now social media has emerged as a new and exciting communication technology. This project explores social media use and the unique way in which media affect Latin Americans’ attitudes. Empirical analysis of survey data from eight Latin American states supports social media as a ‘public sphere’ where participants hold attitudes that are more democratic, separable from traditional media as well as general Internet use." (Abstract)
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"The articles collected in this special issue share a common focus: young adults’ use of new media for civic engagement in South and Southeast Asia. Youth engagement problems are evident when established democracies witness a decline in youth participation in traditional civic activities (e.g., vo
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ting) compared to the participation levels of older generations. MacKinnon et al. (2007) stated, ‘[y]outh are turned off by the game of partisan politics and increasingly refuse to learn or apply the rules. In large measure, they are reinventing civic and political engagement.’ We began our project with the observation that the youth in South and Southeast Asia demonstrate distinctive patterns of civic and political engagement, and we sought information about whether these patterns are a consequence of a generational shift or a result of contextual changes, such as those in political systems and media technologies. We examined two propositions that are often associated with youth engagement and new media. First, new media change the relationship between youth and existing political systems. Second, new media change the nature of civic engagement itself, especially for the youth.
As we inquired further, we found that using established democracies as our reference point might have been incorrect. The difference between the so-called young or semi-democracies and established or mature democracies is not that the former is an inadequate version of the latter. Instead, the political systems found in South and Southeast Asia have their own characteristics, and these systems cannot be simply classified as a lack of democratic components. The same thing can be said about new media. The difference between the region in question and other regions, such as North America and Europe, is not that the former lacks access to technologies that are common in the latter. Instead, the type and use of technologies in the region show unique patterns that cannot be simply defined as less advanced. When we refer to the region, we make no attempt to generate a singular discourse for all the countries involved. Instead, we are highly sensitive to the diversity presented in the individual cases that belong to the region in this study. The end product, therefore, becomes a juxtaposition of multiple reference points that can be not only compared to established democracies but also compared to the other countries in Asia." (Page 249)
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