title: Rising Wave of Social Media: A Perspective of Political Awareness, Voting Behavior, Online and Offline Political Participation of University Students in Pakistan
Creators: name: Zeib, Fakhta
Publisher: name: Philipps-Universität Marburg
Year: 2021
Subjects: Political Mobilization
Literatures of Germanic languages
Deutsche Literatur
Political Awareness
Politische Partizipation im Internet
Online Political Participation
Politisches Bewusstsein
Traditional Voting Behavior
Offline Political Participation
Politische Partizipation offline
Social Media
Twitter
Facebook
Politische Meinungsäußerung
Traditionelles Wahlverhalten

description: In this rapidly changing, technologically advancing and globally networked world, the possibilities of expression for the young generation that are now available have never been as great as they are today. Internet and communication technologies have not only expanded the number of activities of youth, but also the number of ways in which these activities are carried out. Pakistan's youth are also being influenced by the recent wave of social media. Social media platforms offer their users many different and innovative ways to express themselves. Whether it's passive online expression, such as casually liking and sharing social media content, or active online expression, such as commenting, discussing, interfering in online political controversies, evaluating, reading, and forwarding blogs, both promote different levels and forms of civic and political engagement (Gil De Zúñiga et al., 2009; C. Vaccari et al., 2015). In addition, all political parties at the national level in Pakistan also have social media accounts and social media teams. Political parties and personalities use social media for political campaigns and to gain access to young voters, especially those who have previously turned away from politics (Tasenţe &amp; Nicoleta, 2013). Social media is now an increasingly popular platform for bringing about lasting change in the political environment of any country, whether in the mobilization of political protest in Spain through social networks (Anduiza et al., 2014) or in the case of the movement of the Arab Spring (Breuer, 2012; Breuer et al., 2015). This study examines the phenomenon of political communication on Facebook and Twitter and its impact on the political mobilisation of young people in the context of political and social conditions in Pakistan. The data collected on various websites, which include surveys on social media users and on voter voting trends and their political participation, provide some clues to these phenomena and a solid foundation to address this research and test the theoretical theses. These theses are mainly examined with the help of Habermas' (1969) concept of the public sphere and Dahl's (1989) theory of democracy. The study explores the link between young people's political use of Facebook and Twitter and their political mobilization. Three essential elements of Dahl's theory of democracy as parameters of political mobilization are examined, namely an enlightened understanding of politics, equality in voting and an equal and effective participation of all citizens in the political process. The data were collected using a quantitative research method by conducting surveys among 750 male and female university students aged 18-25 from all four provinces of Pakistan. All models of political mobilization were tested using multiple regression analysis. The results, presented in the respective chapters of the dissertation, show the differences between students from all four provinces of Pakistan based on their social media usage patterns, the differences in their political consciousness, the differences in their voting behavior, and the differences in their online and offline political participation. The results show that political statements on social media have a positive and significant correlation with students' level of awareness by arousing students' interest in politics, engaging them in political discussions, and providing them with information and knowledge. Furthermore, the results show that political statements on social media have a positive but medium connection with the change in traditional voting behavior. Family pressure has a greater impact on the choice of choice than the influence of caste/biradri and friends. For political online and offline participation, political expression on social media has a positive and strong association with political online activities and a small to medium correlation with offline political activities. The impact of political expression on social media on female students is relatively small compared to male students, as female students have low levels of participation in offline political activities (real-life) and they seem more likely to accept family pressure when making voting decisions than male students.Overall, political expression on social media has proven to be a very strong predictor of political mobilization and is medium to highly related to all variables.