Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation
While numerous studies have explored the participatory benefits of social media use for political participation, the empirical literature on the mobilizing role of political memes is nearly absent. In addition, most of the attention has been on Western democratic contexts. By employing survey data f...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1789312024-07-14T15:33:05Z Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation Ahmed, Saifuddin Masood, Muhammad Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Social Sciences Social media Political memes While numerous studies have explored the participatory benefits of social media use for political participation, the empirical literature on the mobilizing role of political memes is nearly absent. In addition, most of the attention has been on Western democratic contexts. By employing survey data from an Asian context—Singapore—this study scrutinizes the impact of exposure to political memes in the interplay between political use of social media and online political participation. In addition, it investigates the contingent role of political cynicism. First, the results show that political social media use is associated with online political participation and that association is mediated by exposure to political memes. Further, moderation analyses indicate that social media use provides participatory gains only for individuals exhibiting low political cynicism. However, when such social media use facilitates exposure to political memes, it primarily mobilizes those with high political cynicism into active online political participation. The results suggest that memes can mobilize disengaged groups into active participation. Nanyang Technological University Published version The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The study was funded by Nanyang Technological University. 2024-07-10T06:13:28Z 2024-07-10T06:13:28Z 2024 Journal Article Ahmed, S. & Masood, M. (2024). Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation. Social Media and Society, 10(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20563051241261277 2056-3051 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178931 10.1177/20563051241261277 2-s2.0-85196170017 2 10 en Social Media and Society © 2024 The Author(s). Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). application/pdf |
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Social Sciences Social media Political memes Ahmed, Saifuddin Masood, Muhammad Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation |
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While numerous studies have explored the participatory benefits of social media use for political participation, the empirical literature on the mobilizing role of political memes is nearly absent. In addition, most of the attention has been on Western democratic contexts. By employing survey data from an Asian context—Singapore—this study scrutinizes the impact of exposure to political memes in the interplay between political use of social media and online political participation. In addition, it investigates the contingent role of political cynicism. First, the results show that political social media use is associated with online political participation and that association is mediated by exposure to political memes. Further, moderation analyses indicate that social media use provides participatory gains only for individuals exhibiting low political cynicism. However, when such social media use facilitates exposure to political memes, it primarily mobilizes those with high political cynicism into active online political participation. The results suggest that memes can mobilize disengaged groups into active participation. |
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Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information |
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Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Ahmed, Saifuddin Masood, Muhammad |
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Article |
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Ahmed, Saifuddin Masood, Muhammad |
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Ahmed, Saifuddin |
title |
Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation |
title_short |
Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation |
title_full |
Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation |
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Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation |
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Breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation |
title_sort |
breaking barriers with memes: how memes bridge political cynicism to online political participation |
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2024 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178931 |
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1814047323672543232 |