Track 15. Communication, Education and Social Media Authors: Lifen Cheng

1. Track - 15
“Direct online political communication effects on
civic participation in Spain: an experimental study”
Lifen Cheng
Department of Sociology and Communication
University of Salamanca
International Conference
TEEM’18
24-26 Oct, 2018, Salamanca

2. INTRODUCTION (Interests in the study)
1. Citizen engagement -> indicator -> the degree of active citizenship -> political and
social commitment.
2. Implication -> several layers -> perceptions, feelings, intentions and behaviors.
3. In the ICTs Era, civic engagement should be examined together with the use of online
mobile communication within the active citizenship at a significant level.
4. Increasing popularity of some candidates to political leadership in different countries
that has led many to think of social media as new powerful ways to grant politicians
to communicate directly with voters.

3. References from Previous Research
1. NEW participation form: Electoral participation -> indirect mobilization-> seeks
collaboration with civil actors -> diversity in electoral supply attracts media and
citizens (De Vreese, 2013; 2014 & 2016).
2. INTERACTIVITY on Direct Online Political Communication : International researchers
are looking into what would have been the cognitive and experiential processes that
explain citizens’ response differences between interactive online political
communication and traditional communication in their respective country.
3. CONFLICT frames of political information are believed to be key elements in
traditional political communication: No Conflict => No Political Communication in the
sense of “partisan politics” in democracy.

4. Proposal for Conducting Experimental Study
To test the key elements --> explain the patternof mobilization + civic
participation => effects of online direct political communication.
Hypotheses
H1 - Access to conflict political messages on social media will provoke
more interest in citizens on the access to online political communication.
H2 - The effect of interactive online social media on citizens’ involvement
in political participation will be moderatedby the degree of previous
attitudes, including level of political sophistication, knowledge of
national politics and participation in previous elections.

5. METHODOLOGY
§ Pilot Study
Non-experimental 254 subjects helped with reading messages about identical political
topics with intended manipulation x 4 different experimental conditions, where it was
proved the manipulation efficacyof different experimental conditions to be acceptable.
§ Experiment Participants:
160 graduate and undergraduate students in Spanish universities. Age ranged between
20 (64%)- 23 years (36%), being 57.2 % female; 42.8% male.
§ 2 x 2 Experimental Condition Design
[Conflict] & Online[Interactivity] were used as experimental conditions to elaborate
messages for four internet websites: - [Strong vs Weak conflict] in political message; -
[High vs Low online interactivity]between users’ and political parties on social media
communication.
§ Process - A quasi experimental method was used.

6. CHECK ON Homogenous Distribution of Participants
in the 4 Experimental Conditions
Test results
1) Gender, X2 (3) =.715, p = .897;
2) Age, X2 (3) =3.718, p = .294.
3) Political self-positioning, F(3,156)=.997, p=.396;
4) Internet use, F(3,156)=.080, p=.971;
5) YouTubeviewing, F(3,156)=1.172, p=.321;
6) Social media user, F(3,156)=1.46, p=.228.
7) Radio information listening, F(3,156)=.914, p=.436;
8) Printing press reader, F(3,156)=.080, p=.971.

7. § Experimental Stimuli
- Experiments were conducted at a computer laboratory with WIFI installation and
INTERNET access, each participant was assigned a seat with an individual PC.
- Participants were instructed to access to one website given to them, that pretended to
belong to a “newly created political party” in Spain under the pseudonym of ForumBP
(short for the Forum for Better Politics).
- The experimental websites, uploaded in April 2016, each of them was accessed by a real
Internet URL direction:
[Message-1]: strong conflict - high interactivity, at http://unapoliticamejor.org/sitio
[Message-2]: weak conflict - high interactivity, at http://unapoliticamejor.org/site
[Message-3]: strong conflict - low interactivity, at http://unapoliticamejor.org/miweb
[Message-4]: weak conflict - low interactivity, at http://unapoliticamejor.org/web

8. RESULTS
1) Moderation Analysis of Conditional Effects in
Interaction
Coefficients resulted from interactions of 2 by 2
experimentalconditions show:
o[High interactive] website communication produced
significant different effect between participants
exposed to [weak] (M=3.19) and [strong] (m=3.64)
conflict message on “paying more attention in next
election campaign”, (ϑ[X−>Y/M= -.50] = .45, p = .037). on the
experimental participants
o[Low interactive] online communication did not
exercise significant different effect between
participants exposed to [strong] (m=3.69) and [weak]
(m=3.76) conflict political message on their “intention
to be more interested in next election campaigns”,
(ϑ[X−>Y/M= .50] = .07, p =.743).
Effect: More attention to next election campaigns

9. On the other hand, it shows:
o[Strong conflict] political message did not produced
significant different effect between subjects accessing to
[low] (m=3.69) and [high] (m=3.64) interactive website
on their intention to “pay more attention to next election
campaigns” (ϑ [X−>Y/M= .50] =- .47, p= . 856)
o[Weak conflict ] political message did exercise a
significant different effect between participantsaccessing
to [high interactive] website (m=3.19) and [low
interactive] (m=3.76) on their response for more
attention to future political events, (ϑ [X−>Y/M= -.50] = -.57,
p=.012).
Effect: More attention to next election campaigns
Online Interactivity

10. 2) Analysis of multiple moderate mediation effects in two
experimental studies
[Study I] Experimental Condition “Interactivity”
Online communication [interactivity] was established as causal variable X
(X1 = high interactivity; X0 = low interactivity), participants’ response to
dimension [civic engagement] in political participation = Y. While
participants’ [political interest] = M1 and their [political sophistication] = M2.
Result 1: “Interest in political information” in model X (interactivity) → M1
(coefficient a1), received no significant effect from the experiment condition
[interactive] communication, Binteractivity (a1)= -,07, p = .574 (see Fig).
Hayes’ Conceptual Diagram of
Moderated Mediation Model (2013):
with two mediators, M1 and M2 , there is X,
That is predicted to affect Y through 4 paths

11. Result 2: Moderator “political interest” in model M1, X→ M2
(coefficients d21 y a2) results a significant positive effect on “political
sophistication”, Binterest (d21)= .48, p <,001. But, the experiment
condition [interactive] communication in this model did not have a
significant positive effect on participants’ “political sophistication”,
Binteractivity (a2)= ,12, p= ,436 (see Fig).
Result 3: “civic engagement and political participation” in the
multiple mediator model, M1, M2, X→Y (coefficients b1, b2 and c'),
indicates [online interactivity] by means of “political interest”
produces a significative positive effect on “civic engagement and
political participation”, , Bpolitical interest (b1) = ,39, p< ,001 (see Fig).
Result 4: It is observed that “political sophistication” had a non-
significant positive effect on “civic engagement Bsophistication(b2) = .04,
p = .494 .
v This moderate mediation model concludes a non-significant
direct effect of [interactive] website communication on
participants’ “civic engagement” in political participation”,
Binteractivity(c')= -.10, p= .318, (see Fig).

12. [Study II] Experiment Condition “Conflict”
The 2nd analysis is to test how [conflict] message in online
communication with political parties could exercise some
type of effect on the participants’ response to dimension
“civic engagement” in political participation.
The experimental condition [conflict] message was
established as causal variable X (X1= high, X0= low) and two
moderating variables, M1= “interest in political” info; M2 =
participants’ “political sophistication”.
Result 1: The model X(conflict) → M1 (coefficient a1) shows
non-significative effect under [conflict] message condition
on “interest in politics”, Bconflict (a1)=.05, p = .699 (see Fig).
P=.305
P=.334

13. • Result 2: The experimental condition “conflict” in the
message produced a non-significant negative effect, Bconflict(a2)
= -.05, p= .742, on participants’ “political sophistication” (see
Fig).
• A same Result 3: “Civic engagement ” in political
participation in multiple mediation model M1, M2, X→Y
(coefficients b1, b2 and c'), the variable “interest in political
info” shows significant positive effect, Bpolitical interest (b1)= ,39,
p<,001, on the individuals’ “civic engagement” in political
participation.
• However, it is observed that “political sophistication” in this
model produced a non-significant positive effect,
Bsophistication (b2) = .03, p =.517, on “civic engagement ” .
v This leads to a non-significant positive effect of “conflict”
level, Bconflict (c')= .09, p= .334, on participants’ “civic
engagement in political participation” (see Fig).
P=.305
P=.334

14. Hypothesis check
H1 - Access to conflict political messages on social media will provoke more interest
in the access to online political communication.
Hypothesis-1 is Not Supported
H2 - The effect of interactive online social media on citizens’ involvement in political
participation will be moderated by the degree of previous political interest ,
including level of political sophistication: knowledge of national politics and
participation in previous elections.
Hypothesis-2 is Partly Supported.
Citizens with previous interest in political information who access to direct
online communication tend to be more active in civic engagement.

15. This study concludes:
1. In a usual context, citizens with high interest in
political information on social media will be
mobilized to higher political participation.
2. Under normal circumstances, effect of using
interactive political social media on civic
engagement is moderated by the individuals’
previous attitudes, provided there is NO Strong
Conflict involved in the online political
communication process.
C O N C L U S I O N

16. lfcheng@usal.es