TY - JOUR
T1 - Fueling civil disobedience in democracy
T2 - WhatsApp news use, political knowledge, and illegal political protest
AU - Gil de Zúñiga, Homero
AU - Goyanes, Manuel
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:Late stages of this work at the Democracy Research Unit (DRU) have benefited from the support of the Spanish National Research Agency’s Program for the Generation of Knowledge and the Scientific and Technological Strengthening Research + Development Grant PID2020-115562GB-I00. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this study lies entirely with the authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Prior scholarship has consistently shown that informed citizens tend to better understand government actions, expectations, and priorities, potentially mitigating radicalism such as partaking in illegal protest. However, the role of social media may prove this relationship to be challenging, with an increasingly pervasive use of applications such as WhatsApp for information and mobilization. Findings from a two-wave US panel survey data show that WhatsApp news is negatively associated to political knowledge and positively associated to illegal protest. Less politically knowledgeable citizens also tend to engage in illegal protest more frequently. Results also suggest an influential role of political knowledge in mediating the effects of WhatsApp news over illegal protests. Those who consume more news on WhatsApp tend to know less about politics which, in turn, positively relates to unlawful political protest activities. This study suggests that WhatsApp affordances provide fertile paths to nurture illegal political protest participation.
AB - Prior scholarship has consistently shown that informed citizens tend to better understand government actions, expectations, and priorities, potentially mitigating radicalism such as partaking in illegal protest. However, the role of social media may prove this relationship to be challenging, with an increasingly pervasive use of applications such as WhatsApp for information and mobilization. Findings from a two-wave US panel survey data show that WhatsApp news is negatively associated to political knowledge and positively associated to illegal protest. Less politically knowledgeable citizens also tend to engage in illegal protest more frequently. Results also suggest an influential role of political knowledge in mediating the effects of WhatsApp news over illegal protests. Those who consume more news on WhatsApp tend to know less about politics which, in turn, positively relates to unlawful political protest activities. This study suggests that WhatsApp affordances provide fertile paths to nurture illegal political protest participation.
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U2 - 10.1177/14614448211047850
DO - 10.1177/14614448211047850
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116555903
JO - New Media and Society
JF - New Media and Society
SN - 1461-4448
ER -