
Slowly approaching the second quarter of the 21st century, research on social media and its effects over democracy has quickly permeated across various fields in social sciences, particularly political communication. Based on accumulated evidence in this strand of literature, this paper briefly summarizes several established research areas. First, it highlights how social media facilitates individuals’ political expression. Second, it sheds light on how this enhanced communicative behavior has reinvigorated a more participatory society in democracy. Third, it examines social media’s democratic deficit mechanisms in regards to stagnant political knowledge acquisition. Finally, the paper offers a theoretical explanation to this lack of knowledge acquisition through the lenses of the ‘news-finds-me’ perception theory. Overall, the present manuscript explains specific ways in which social media helps and hinders the advancement of healthy democracies, thereby also providing promising guidelines for future research.
Political participation, 508007 Kommunikationswissenschaft, Political expression, NFM, “News, finds, Social media, 10240 Department of Communication and Media Research, Political knowledge, me” perception, 3309 Library and Information Sciences, 508007 Communication science, 070 News media, journalism & publishing
Political participation, 508007 Kommunikationswissenschaft, Political expression, NFM, “News, finds, Social media, 10240 Department of Communication and Media Research, Political knowledge, me” perception, 3309 Library and Information Sciences, 508007 Communication science, 070 News media, journalism & publishing
| citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 28 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
