Pew - Social Networks and Politics

A recent report from the Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project suggests that campaign and policy-related information shared on Social Network Services (SNS) can have a modest role in influencing user's views and political involvement.  The study, based on surveys conducted early this year, asked social network users their thoughts about politics and social media.  While the full study is worth a read, here's a few highlights -

• Social networks are not heavily used for political content.  84% of users indicated that they don't really post about politics on SNS, and 59% said that their friends don't either.  Only 6% indicated that their posts are mainly about politics, and another 10% said they had posted something about politics recently.
• Roughly a quarter of respondents indicated that political content on SNS was at least somewhat important in terms of finding others with similar political views, discussing or debating political issues with others, and recruiting others to get involve in politics. More than a third (36%) felt that social networking sites were at least somewhat important in terms of keeping up with political news.
• Self-identified Democrats were significantly more likely to indicate that social network sites, and political content on those sites, were important sources and tools.  Self-identified Republicans and Independents had very similar views about the importance of politics on social networks.  Blacks and younger adults were also slightly more likely to indicate that politics on social media was at least somewhat important and useful.
• Perceptions about the impact of political messaging on social networks was low and mixed.  When asked about the impact of SNS political content, 25% indicated that they were likely to become more politically active, while 9% indicated they were likely to become less involved.  Only 16% felt that political messages on social media had ever changed their views about a political issue. Interestingly, 18% of users indicated that they had blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone because of that person's political postings. 
• The use of social media for political content and discussion seems to be correlated with an individual's willingness to talk a lot about politics with their friends and family.
   

  The key finding here, however, is that the vast majority of users felt that political content shared via social media was not very important to them, and had minimal, if any, impact.  Still, the report concludes that "those who are quite politically attuned use social networking sites differently and get more out of them."


Sources - Social Networks and Politics, Research Brief from the Center for Media Research.
Politics on Social Networking Sites, research report from the Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project.