The contribution of social network sites to exposure to political difference: The relationships among SNSs, online political messaging, and exposure to cross-cutting perspectives

Authors:
Yonghwan Kim
Affiliations:
School of Journalism, College of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A1000, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Venue:
Computers in Human Behavior
Year:
2011

Citing 2
Cited 5

Voters, MySpace, and YouTube

Social Science Computer Review
Republic.com 2.0

Republic.com 2.0

To stick or not to stick: The social response theory in the development of continuance intention from organizational cross-level perspective

Computers in Human Behavior
Simulation of user participation and interaction in online discussion groups

MSM'11 Proceedings of the 2011 international conference on Modeling and Mining Ubiquitous Social Media
Does Twitter motivate involvement in politics? Tweeting, opinion leadership, and political engagement

Computers in Human Behavior
Two Sides of the Coin: Assessing the Influence of Social Network Site Use During the 2012 U.S. Presidential Campaign

Social Science Computer Review
Stumbling upon news on the Internet: Effects of incidental news exposure and relative entertainment use on political engagement

Computers in Human Behavior

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

The increasing popularity of social network sites (SNSs) has raised questions about the role of social network media in the democratic process. This study explores how use of SNSs influences individuals' exposure to political difference. The findings show a positive and significant relationship between SNSs and exposure to challenging viewpoints, supporting the idea that SNSs contribute to individuals' exposure to cross-cutting political points of view. Partisanship was not found to interact with SNS use, suggesting that SNSs contribute to expanding exposure to dissimilar political views across individuals' partisanship. Online political messaging also has a direct effect on exposure to dissimilar viewpoints, and it mediates the association between SNSs and exposure to cross-cutting political views.