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Webology (ISSN: 1735-188X)
Volume 19, Number 2, 2022
4540 http://www.webology.org
Rising Wave Of Social Media: Empowering University
Students Through Online And Offline Political Participation
Fakhta Zeib
Research Scholar, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Wilhelm-Röpke-Straße 6a, 35039 Marburg,
Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6889-2995
Abstract
Youngsters’ frequent use of facebook and twitter has facilitated their political expression and
transformed the traditional ways of political participation. Combining Dahl’s theory of
‘Democratic Processes’ and Habermas’s theory of ‘Public Sphere’, the current study provides an
extension to the theory by examining: (1) the role of social media political expression in fostering
the democratic process through online and offline political participation of university students in
Pakistan. Further, the study also fills the gap by analyzing the association between their achieved
level of online and offline political participation in the context of Pakistan’s struggling democracy.
The data is collected from May 15 to July 31, 2020, through survey of 750 students, both male and
female, from different universities in four provinces of Pakistan. Study reveals high-level
association of social media political expression with online political participation and medium-
level association with offline political participation. Male students appear more active in online
and offline political activities than female students. Certain variations on the bases of performed
activities and demographic characteristics prevail. Moreover, the study includes split model
analysis on the bases of gender, study disciplines and province. Previous studies have focused on
social media political participation but not as a democratic function. The major contribution of the
study is that it develops a framework that connects the theory of democratic process with new
practices of democratic participation.
Keywords: Social Media; Facebook Use; Twitter Use; Political Expression; Online Political
Participation; Offline Political Participation.
1. Introduction
Political discourse on social media has been under discussion by many researchers with special
focus on political participation in changing media environment i.e. diversity and the increased
utility of communication media such as digital, social, and mobile media (Vowe & Henn, 2016).
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In previous years, global political communication research has also focused on the relationship
between communication media and the exclusion of people from policy and decision-making
processes. Citizens do not have sufficient opportunities to participate in democratic process as
required by the democracy to run (Parvin, 2018). Irrespective of the medium of political
communication, the democratization of political discourse is emphasized by political
communication scholars for the resilience and sustainability of the democratic process (Sánchez
Medero, 2020; Van Aelst et al., 2017). Notwithstanding, the participation of a large number of
people in political discourse is good for healthier political democratic norms. Public narrative
through open talks, discussion, and fora of independent debate enables plurality in political
communicative discourse. Such narrative motivates independent decision-making which results in
increasing political consciousness among masses (Wei & Zhao, 2017).
The speedy emergence of digital technologies is reframing the scholarly debate about the inclusion
of democratic political discourse of marginalized social groups in the political process along with
the democratization of the communication process through the new public sphere of social media.
The use of social media has changed the patterns of participation among youngsters (Keating &
Melis, 2017). Political expression of social media has the potential to motivate youngsters to
participate in online political activities. Many studies signify the role of political use of socila
media for encouraging political participation in strengthened democracies such as in Europe and
America (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2014; Knoll et al., 2020). However, the phenomenon of political
participation has been understudied in struggling democracies like Pakistan. This artcile expands
political participation into online and offline political participation. It is noteworthy, that online
political expression and online political participation can not contribute effectively in democracy,
if these expressions and activities do not translate into real-life political activities (participation in
offline political activities). The phenomenon of online political participation coupled with offline
political activism as a consequence of online political expression is endorsed by a plethora of
previous and contemporary studies (Althoff et al., 2017). The study also explore the association
between online political participation and offline political participation of university students in
Pakistan. Nevertheless, the core question about ‘achieved level of offline participation as a result
of online expression’ in the perspective of Pakistan still needs a lot of scholarly attention. However,
the current study fills the gap by investigating (1) the association between social media political
expression and the participation of university students in online and offline political activities, (2)
the association between online political participation and offline political participation of
university students in Pakistan. The other contribution includes that the study collects data from
all four provinces of Pakistan and incorporate split analysis on the bases of gender, study discipline
and province to capture the variations.
2. Theoretical Framework
The explanation of study has a theoretical foundation on the ‘Theory of democracy’ taken from
the book ‘Democracy and its critics’ by Dahl (1989), and ‘Theory of Public Sphere’ by Habermas
(1962). Emphasizing democracy as the rule by the people, Dahl specifies the requirements of the
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democratic process: effective participation, voting equality, and enlightened understanding.
However, the focus of this study is on a very important requirement of Dahl’s theory of democracy,
which is effective participation. He asserts that the citizens are an integral part of the decision-
making process in democracy and they should have provided the equal opportunity to take part in
the democratic process via the above-mentioned requirements of the democracy. And non-
provision of equal participation means rejecting the principle of equality. He emphasizes that
adequate opportunity and equal opportunity should be provided to the citizens for the expression
and practice of their choices and even the right to question a particular agenda. Further, the study
takes on the position of Habermas, who discusses the ideal notion of the public sphere as a place
where private people gather to discuss public issues freely and without state pressures. According
to him, public spheres should have the principle foundation of open discussion on any issue and
the right to participate freely.
Nevertheless, the question about the healthy contribution of the new public sphere; the social
media, in engaging youngsters in political discourse on public debate fora and their participation
in the political process has not been attended sufficiently in context of socio-political environment
of Pakistan. Based on Dahl’s argument about the inclusion of all citizens in the democratic process,
the study develops a framework to investigate how well the Habermas’s notion of Public sphere
helps in achieving the requirement of Dahl’s theory of democracy in the context of social media
political participation.
3. Literature Review
Internet and social media, a new public sphere, is not only facilitating but, somehow, transforming
the traditional forms of political participation into more innovative forms and activities of political
participation for young people worldwide (Getachew & Beshah, 2019). The research on the subject
has been passing through evolutionary phases since 90’s and no consensus is found on its potential
impact on citizens’ participation (Vissers & Stolle, 2014). Critics argue that it only facilitates
barrier-free communication, and smooth flow of communication, further, freedom of sharing
information influences citizens’ participation (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2014; Wells et al., 2017). There
is still disagreement whether it develops an attitude toward politics and political participation,
increases the level of political participation, or just reinforces already established political
behaviors (Chu & Yeo, 2018; Pickard & Bessant, 2018).
However, many researchers highlighted the significance of political expression to motivate people
to political participation (Knoll et al., 2020). A PEW survey report 2018 on social media use and
civic and political participation among young Americans states that 66% of social media users
have used the platforms to post their thoughts on a particular issue. Further online activities include
pressing ‘like’, involving other friends in these activities, encouraging them to vote, posting links
to news stories, following political candidates on twitter and re-tweeting other’s tweets (Ohme et
al., 2016; Wike & Castillo, 2018). Studies have been conducted using different social media e.g.
some scholars found the relationship between political expression and participation using twitter
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(Ahmed & Skoric, 2014; Vaccari et al., 2015), using Facebook (Feezell, 2018), both on Facebook
and Twitter (Karamat & Farooq, 2016; Velasquez & Rojas, 2017).
Contemporary scientific literature suggests that an individual’s political expressions may help in
positively forming collective behaviors, which further, lead to motivate individuals for collective
action (Ahuja et al., 2018). Gil de Zúñiga et al. (2014) establish a relationship between political
talk and political action by changing a person, who is expressing or sharing thoughts, from a mere
observer to a participant. In the same manner, many empirical researchers like Bakshy et al., (2015)
also suggest that machine mediated political communication is more diverse than face-to face
communication which opens up new and diverse avenues for both engaged and disengaged
audience (Velasquez & Rojas, 2017, pp. 1–13). Knoll et al., (2020) developed a Social Media
Political Participation Model (SMPPM) to assess the level of political participation. They propose
that, whether the exposure is incidental or intentional, the social media’s political use lead to
political participation after passing through a series of processes. Online civic talk and online
political expression is a positive predictor of online and offline political participation (Hsieh & Li,
2014). Moreover, the use of online news gathering seems to be more effective in influencing
political expression on social media and promoting civic engagement (David et al., 2019).
The use of social media and consequently its impacts on youngsters’ political participation,
irrespective of other factors, are judged using three parameters in different researches. First, the
relationship varies depending not only on different types of social media platforms but on their
patterns of use. Heiss et al., (2019) found that social media use for political information and for
self-expression are associated with political engagement through intentional exposure, whereas,
through incidental exposure, the entertainment use of social media was related to online political
engagement. Some have found that the news seeking uses of social media enhances their political
participation (Valeriani & Vaccari, 2016). Second, Many studies investigate the relationship
between social media usage intensity and political participation. Here the intensity is defined as
the time spent on social media in terms of average hours spent and average posts made on facebook
or frequency of tweets or retweets on twitter per week (Wirtz et al., 2017). Less to moderate
intensity of political use of facebook and twitter was a positive predictor of online political
participation among social media users of US (Yang & DeHart, 2016). Third, the density of social
media use, which means how deeply people are engaged in using social media, indicates the
interest level of the users. The density of social media use is characterized by heterogeneous
practices of users fluctuating from passive consumption to active political expression and
discussion, entangling online political controversy and engaging in online conversations (Skoric
& Zhu, 2016).
3.1. Online Political Participation of Youth
Diverse communication opportunities through the internet and social networking sites have made
political and social activists more active than ever before. Youngsters’ more extensive and frequent
use of the social media has turned researchers’ interest to political expression on social media and
its impacts on their online and offline political participation. The phenomenon of youth’s political
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participation during the US Election 2012 affected by social media use is analyzed by investigated
the psychological and behavioral factors which predict youngster’s online political participation.
Youngsters’ heavy routine exposure to Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube is related to their online
and offline political participation (Yang & DeHart, 2016).
About political activism of youth in Pakistan, many scholars reinforce the increasing use and heavy
dependency on social media for political purposes. During election 2013 and onward, the social
media has changed the political scenario of Pakistan; the reliance of political parties and political
candidates on social media for mobilizing youth and youth’s activism on online and offline politics
of Pakistan which has not been experienced previously in Pakistani politics (Karamat & Farooq,
2016). This new political outlook, influenced and structured by social media, not only transformed
the traditional forms of political activities into diverse and contemporary forms of political
participation among youngsters, but it also encouraged youngsters to participate in the traditional
forms of political activities i.e. voting and campaign activities (Quintelier, 2007).
Social media communicate political stuff to the younger generation, to those also who were not
active politically on these websites earlier. Social media proved as a catalyst for a politically
disengaged group of people e.g. a group particularly not interested in politics previously (Vaccari
et al., 2015). Mustapha & Omar analyzed online and offline participatory behaviors among youth
and conclude that youth’s mainstream political disengagement takes over safe heaven in
alternative and online political engagement which is non-hierarchical and cost-effective (2020).
Social networking sites and microblogging services are used as a prominent source of election
campaigning by political parties, candidates, and their supporters. Many scholars argued the role
of social media during election campaigns and confirmed its effectiveness (Lilleker & Jackson,
2011). Nevertheless, the political parties and the candidates are using social media to initiate their
political agenda in routine also. In Pakistan, it is a matter of common observation that for political
parties and candidates, not only during elections, social media is a tool for permanent campaigning
throughout the tenure between two elections through the propagation of political agenda and
policies and to keep engaging their supporters in a number of ways. First, politicians made
aggressive use of social media platforms to convince their voters in the previous two elections held
in Pakistan, in 2013 and 2018. Second, strengthening early predispositions in case of the favorite
political party and helping in mind-setting of undecided or floating voters by convincing them
effectively through direct contact of political candidates Lilleker & Jackson (2011). Third,
Politicians, political activists, and supporters have now restructured fundraising appeals by
knocking the social networks of their followers beyond offline platforms (Auter & Fine, 2018).
Fourth, the political parties use social media platforms to incorporate regular updates such as about
political, national and local, gatherings and the organization of those gatherings, to disseminate
campaign information to voters, to contact and to issue discussion with them (Stieglitz et al., 2012).
Thus, the above literature concludes that social media political expression encourages online
political participation of youngsters. The study tests following hypothesis.
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H1: There is an association between social media political expression and online political
participation of university students.
3.2. Social Media Political Expression leads to Offline Political Participation
Many other studies which are based on cross-sectional data reveal that political expression on
social media also motivates to take part in real-life political activities (Althoff et al., 2017; Skoric
& Zhu, 2016). Survey results reveal a positive association between political expression on social
media and offline political participation for both facebook and twitter (Ham & Pap, 2018). Appeal
for donating money to a political party or candidate was also found as a potential contributor to
offline political activities (Kim & Chen, 2016).
A plethora of studies conclude offline activities as traditional political participation such as
political campaign activities; organizing and attending political gatherings, rallies, processions and
demonstrations (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010), and informal political activities such as corner
meetings, contacting officials, face-to-face canvassing, spreading election campaign material,
meeting politicians, attending other offline political events, signing up as a volunteer, wearing
wrist bands with party symbols, pasting party flags on cycles, motorcycle, cars, dresses (Gil de
Zúñiga et al., 2014; Valenzuela et al., 2012) and protest participation (Breuer et al., 2015). Social
media has become not only, the online public sphere for political discussion but a platform that
initiates political discussions on offline public spheres also. Political discussions as a result of
political expression in online networks promote viewpoint diversity and argument elaboration
(Kim & Chen, 2016). Researchers have acknowledged political discussions as a very important
indicator of offline political participation of youngsters (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2014).
The analysis of different studies shows that there are varied results on mobilizing effects of the
political use of social media in non-democratic regimes. In non-democratic political setups, the
role of social media is analyzed, presumably, to destabilize and shatter the non-democratic
established political norms (Fletcher et al., 2012). Extensive use of internet-based social
applications was observed in middle-eastern countries as an effective tool for mobilizing young
people, even though these applications are under the control of ruling governments. The popular
examples are the Arab spring movement in early 2011 and Egypt's Tahrir Square protests (Breuer
et al., 2015). In 2016, when a coup attempt was made by one Turkish military section and tried to
unrest the government, President Tayyab Erdogan sent a video message through social networks
and then this message became viral through multiple social networks including facebook (Tanash
et al., 2017). Thus, the literature concludes that online communication media has not only
supplemented the effects on online political activities but also encouraged offline political
activities. Many scholars analyzed the effects of online political expression separately on online
and offline participatory behaviors and found a similar level of online and offline participation
(Ahmad et al., 2019). Some revealed a strong correlation between online political participation
and offline political participation (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2014). Some studies found that the effects
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of social media communication on offline participation are subject to users’ characteristics
(Enjolras et al., 2013). Thus the study predicts
H2: There is an association between social media political expression and offline political
participation of university students.
H3: Online political participation (Online PP) is positively associated with offline political
participation (Offline PP) of university students.
4. Methods and Materials
The study is conducted using quantitative research method. Survey method is used to collect the
data. To reach empirical findings, major concepts are operationalized using different scales, some
are adapted and some are developed, and finally converted them into measurable variables. First,
we operationalize political expression on social media (Facebook and Twitter). Different questions
are included intending to measure the intensity, frequency, and density of political expression of
university students on facebook and twitter (Hsieh & Li, 2014; Wirtz et al., 2017). Such as the
discussion on any political topics on Facebook, tweeting or retweeting about any political topic
and the number of facebook political pages joined and political characters followed. Scales are
adapted from Yang & DeHart (2016) and Valenzuela et al. (2009) to measure the ‘political
expression’ among university students.
Second, to measure political participation, the study incorporates the intensity of political
participation and breadth of political participation. The breadth of political participation
corresponds to the number of activities a person is involved and the intensity means how much a
person is involved in a particular activity (Eveland & Scheufele, 2000). Every respondent may
have his own idiosyncratic meaning of political participation according to any specific political
activity. For example, a person involved in one or two political activities very frequently and
deeply may differ from another person who is involved in a number of activities but not deeply
and frequently involved. However, to measure and analyze online political participation the
categories formulated are sending an online invitation for political meetings, online appeal for
donations, posting, sharing and commenting, sharing online political slogans, political discussions
on fcaebook and twitter, following twitter accounts, tweeting, re-tweeting on other’s tweets,
making any facebook page or group for political communication, and joining facebook pages or
groups of political parties or candidates. Third, to analyze offline political participation the
categories formulated are related to real-life political activities such as offline canvassing, political
discussions in classrooms, political discussions with family, offline campaigning, attending or
delivering speeches, distributing campaign material, wearing caps, T-shirts showing political
affiliation, placing campaign stickers or flags of a favorite political party, and collecting money
for running a political campaign. Respondents are asked to respond on a 5-point Likert scale.
Moreover, the study also includes demographic questions to analyze the relationship between
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independent and dependent variables, e.g., age, gender, educational level, family income,
academic discipline, and province.
A mixed-methods sampling is used to collect responses from the universities of four provinces of
Pakistan. Considering each province as a cluster and one university from each cluster is selected
randomly. Selected universities are from province of Punjab (University of the Punjab, Lahore and
Government College University, Faisalabad), province of Sindh (University of Karachi), province
of Balochistan (University of Balochistan, Quetta), and province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(University of Peshawar). Further, six academic departments are selected through random
sampling from each university and grouped into two disciplines i.e. ‘physical science’ and ‘social
science’ for analysis. Finally, responses from 750 university students (male and female) of ages
(18-25 years) have been collected through structured questionnaire (open-ended) with a cover
letter representing their consent to participate in the study. The data was collected between May
15 to July 31, 2020. Given the financial and time limits, mediators from different universities are
arranged to collect data from farthermost areas of Pakistan. They are guided about data collection
procedure through online training sessions.
The Cronbach Alpha, calculated using SPSS, is 0.90, which indicates a high level of reliability for
all scales. Multiple regression analysis is used to predict social media political expression and
change in traditional voting behavior of university students with various predictors.
5. Results
The statistical inferences provide evidence that support both H1 and H2. As predicted in hypothesis
H1 and H2, social media political expression has a significant and positive association with online
political participation (β = .769, p < .001) and offline political participation (β = .540, p < .001). It
indicates that if social media political expression among university students is increased by one
standard deviation, online and offline political participation among university students is increased
by 0.769 and .540 standard deviations respectively. Regression analysis also supported these
models as 63.2% and 54 % of variance (Adjusted R2) in online and off political participation,
respectively, was explained by variables included in the model.
Regression Table 1 Prediction of Online/Offline Political Participation
Variable
Standardized
Coefficientsa (β)
Std. Error
t
Durbin-
Watson
Online Political Participation
Constant
.348
15.997
Social Media Political
Expression
.769*
.023
32.906
2.007
Offline Political Participation
Constant
.378
20.753
Social Media Political
Expression
.540*
.025
17.565
1.789
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a. Dependent Variable: Online Political Participation (Adjusted R2=.632),Offline Political
Participation(Adjusted R2=.422), Model Summary: Sample size=750. Correlation is significant at
* p< .001; **p<. .01; ***p< .05
Regression analysis also supported this model when including other explanatory variables with
variance 63.7% and 41.5% for online and offline political participation respectively. Some of these
control variables yielded a low but significant influence on the online political participation of
university students in Pakistan. For the prediction of online political participation, gender (β = -
.012, p < .05), study level (β = -.034, p < .05) and study discipline (β = -.079, p < .001) were
statistically significant. For the prediction of offline political participation, gender (β = -.081, p <
.01), study discipline (β = -.063, p < .05) and province (β = -.057, p < .05) were statistically
significant. It indicates that if the gender is increased by one standard deviation, the online political
participation is decreased by 0.012 standard deviations and offline political participation is
decreased by 0.081 standard deviations among university students. In addition, this is true only if
the effects of other explanatory variables (social media political expression, age, study level, study
department, province, and family income level) are kept constant.
The statistical inferences pointed out that the focal independent variable (social media political
expression), still, remained highly significant and associated (β = .794, p < .001) with online
political participation and (β = .618, p < .001) with offline political participation of the university
students, when the effects of other control variables were also measured. The overall model
including demographic variables gives a good explanation of online and offline political
participation.
Regression Table 2 Prediction of Online/ Offline Political Participation with Control Variables
Online Political Participation
Offline Political Participation
Independent
Variables
Standardized
Coefficientsa
(β)
Std.
Error
t
Standardized
Coefficientsa
(β)
Std.
Error
T
Constant
1.968
4.122
1.985
4.372
Social Media
Political Expression
.794*
.023
35.176
.618*
.023
21.557
Student Age
.020
.068
.872
.028
.068
.967
Gender of the
Student
-.012***
.255
-1.047
-.081**
.257
-2.796
Study Level of
student
-.034***
.096
-1.477
-.014
.117
-.461
Study Discipline
-.079*
.107
-3.550
-.063***
.249
-2.233
Family Income
-.009
.000
-.402
-.022
.000
-.765
Province of student
-.006
.106
-.267
-.057***
.107
-2.027
a. Dependent Variable: Online Political Participation, Offline Political Participation
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Model Summary: Sample size=750. Adjusted R2=.637 and Durbin Watson=2.007 (Online Political
Participation), Adjusted R2=.415 and Durbin Watson=1.630 (Offline Political Participation).,
Correlation is significant at * p < .001; **p <. .01; ***p < .05.
The study also investigates online and offline political participation on the bases of gender, study
discipline and province differences. The standardized regression coefficients of online political
participation of male (β = .708, p < .001), female (β = .665, p < .001) and offline political
participation of male (β = .631, p < .001), female (β = .439, p < .001) were noted. It indicates that
if the social media political expression is increased by one standard deviation, the level of online
political participation is increased by 0.708 standard deviations among male, .665 standard
deviations among female and the level of offline political participation is increased by 0.631
standard deviations among male and .439 standard deviations among female university students.
The value of Durbin-Watson was very well within the range (1.5 - 2.5). The statistics show that
male respondents exhibited a higher level of, both, online and offline political participation than
female respondents. Similarly, table 3 also represents the standardized regression coefficients of
online political participation (social science β = .788, p < .001), (physical science β = .654, p <
.001) and offline political participation (social science β = .636, p < .001), (physical science β =
.507, p < .001) of the students from different disciplines. It can be inferred that social science
students exhibited a higher level of, both, online and offline political participation than physical
science students. In addition, the table 3 also represents the standardized regression coefficients of
online and offline political participation of the students from different provinces The values of
Adjusted R2 give the overall explanation of the models with respect to each category of the
variables and the results can be well generalized on the population. The detailed statistics are given
in the table.
Regression Table 3 Prediction of Online Political Participation comparing Gender, Study
Discipline, and Province
Online Political Participation
Offline Political Participation
Variable
Response
Categories
Adjusted
R2
Standardized
Coefficientsa b
(β)
Std.
Error
Adjusted
R2
Standardized
Coefficientsa b
(β)
Std.
Error
1-Gender
Male
.652*
.708*
.029
.399*
.631*
.034
Female
.583*
.665*
.039
.254*
.439*
.037
2-Study
Discipline
Social
Science
.702*
.788*
.030
.403*
.636*
.035
Physical
Science
.568*
.654*
.034
.332*
.507*
.042
3-
Province
Punjab
.567*
.708*
.042
.371*
.613*
.059
Sindh
.617*
.787*
.043
.410*
.644*
.067
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Khyber
Pakhtunkha
.602*
.703*
.040
.346*
.590*
.042
Balochistan
.529*
.682*
.041
.294*
.447*
.049
a. Dependent Variable: Online Political Participation, Offline Political Participation
b. Predictor: Social Media Political Expression, Gender, Study Discipline, Province
Model Summary: Sample size=750. Correlation is significant at * p < .001; **p <. .01; ***p < .05
The statistical inferences provide evidence that also support the hypothesis H3. As predicted in
hypothesis H3, online political participation has a significant and positive association (β = .412, p
< .001) with offline political participation. It indicates that if online political participation is
increased by one standard deviation, offline political participation is increased by .412 standard
deviation. The value of adjusted R2 gives good explanation of the model.
Gender (β = -.361, p < .001), study level (β = .069, p < .05), and province (β = -.118, p < .001),
appeared to have significant influence on offline political participation of university students in
Pakistan. It indicates that if the gender is increased by one standard deviation, the offline political
participation among university students is decreased by 0.361 standard deviations and this is true
only if the effects of other explanatory variables are kept constant. The detailed statistics are given
in the table.
Regression Table 4 Online Political Participation predicts Offline Political Participation
Independent
Variables
Standardized
Coefficientsa
(β)
Std. Error
t
Constant
2.298
3.620
Online Political
Participation
.412*
.026
13.896
Gender of the Student
-.361*
.294
-12.042
Study Level of the
student
.069***
.135
2.229
Province of the
student
-.118*
.124
-3.969
a.Dependent Variable: Offline Political Participation.
Model Summary: Sample size=750. Adjusted R2=.368. Durbin Watson=1.701
Correlation is significant at * p < .001; **p <. .01; ***p < .05.
In table 5, the difference in the levels of respondents’ online and offline participation was measured
with respect to their mean difference. On average participants were engage in online political
participation (M= 17.23, SD= 5.570, SE= 0.20), than the participants who were engage in offline
political participation (M= 13.62, SD= 4.880, SE= 0.18). Inferences can be made from the findings
presented in table 5, that a statistically significant difference exists between online political
participation and offline political participation of the respondents. The respondent’s level of
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participation in online activities is more than the level of participation in offline activities. The
difference between the means of online political participation and offline participation was
sufficiently large to explain it as a true mean difference (17.23- 13.62= 3.612) and not a possible
chance result. Table 5 also presents paired sample correlations (0.469, p < .001), along with
bootstrap for correlations (0.400-0.530, SE= .032) of online political participation and offline
political participation. It inferred that online political participation is correlated with offline
political participation (46.9%) with significance p <.001.
Table 5 Paired Samples Statistics
Statistics
Bias
Boot strapa
SE
Lower
Upper
Online Political
Participation
Mean
17.23
-.01
.20
16.83
17.65
SD
5.570
-.016
.138
5.296
5.833
SE Mean
.203
Offline Political
Participation
Mean
13.62
-.02
.18
13.26
13.94
SD
4.880
-.019
.136
4.601
5.127
SE Mean
.178
Online PP & Offline
PP
Correlation
.469
-.001
.032
.400
.530
a. Unless otherwise noted, bootstrap results are based on 1000 bootstrap samples. 95%
Confidence Interval (CI)
SD= Standard Deviation, SE=Standard Error, N=750
6. Discussion
The study examines the relationship between university student’s political use of social media and
the level of their online political participation. The formulated hypothesis was “Political expression
on social media is associated with online and offline political participation of university students
in Pakistan”. Further, analysis aimed at measuring the role of intervening variables, such as gender,
age, study level, study discipline, family income, and province. Depending upon the cultural values
of the society, social circumstances, and the political environment of the Pakistan, the most
relevant political activities were selected for the analysis. The study aimed at analyzing the causes
of variation in political participation among different students by investigating multiple items of
online political participation. Additionally, the study also aimed at investigating the participation
levels among different students and patterns of using different online political activities.
The results from hypothesis testing revealed that there is a direct, positive, and strong association
between social media political expression and online political participation of the university
students in Pakistan. The overall model suggests a high correlation of social media political
expression with online political participation and medium level correlation with offline political
participation. The models of social media political expression with or without other explanatory
variables demonstrated high significance explaining (63.7% and 63.2% for online political
participation) and (41.5% and 42.2% for offline political participation) of variance respectively.
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Additionally, the demographic differences i.e. gender, study discipline and province were also
noted for the models of online and offline political participation. These considerations proved very
substantial for the study. the study revealed significant differences in online and offline political
participation of male and female students i.e male students were more likely to engage in, both,
online and offline political activities as compared to female students. Female students participated
comparatively less in online and offline activities, which are also supported by the previous
literature (Zaheer, 2016).
However, study revealed that the difference in the level of participation in some online political
activities was much higher among male students than the female students, whereas, in others, the
participation level was almost the same. For example, among all activities the participation of male
and female students was almost the same while appealing for donations and posting texts, pictures,
and videos of political parties. Moreover, the level of participation, individually, in all offline
political activities was higher among male students than female students. However, the difference
in participation level of male and female students was not high in appealing to vote for any political
party as female students also participated actively in this activity. Findings also revealed that male
and female participation difference in real-life discussions, such as in the classroom with friends,
was not high.
The study discipline-wise split model revealed that the social science students exhibited a higher
level of, both, online and offline political participation as compared to physical science students.
Moreover, social science students appeared more active in some online activities such as inviting
for political meetings and processions of political candidates and political parties, posting political
slogans, texts, pictures, and videos related to political content. However, physical science students
were more active in sharing the received post related to political content. For offline political
activities, social science students appeared more active in attending political meetings and
processions of political candidates and political parties and wearing shirts and caps of political
parties. Physical science students showed more participation in putting flags and stickers of
political parties and inviting others to vote for any political party. For province wise split model,
the students from the province of Sindh tend to participate in, both, online and offline political
activities more actively as a result of their social media political expression than the students from
other provinces. The students from the province of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkha exhibited
almost the same level of online and offline political participation. The students from the province
of Balochistan exhibited the lowest participation level in both online and offline political activities.
Investigations suggested that students appealed for donating money for a political party or political
candidate very infrequently in comparison to all other online and offline political activities, which
was contrary to many other studies (Boulianne, 2015; Kim & Chen, 2016). Which was possibly
because of many social and economic reasons; in the political tradition of Pakistan, the local
political candidates are responsible for executing and bearing the expenses of their individual
election campaigns and they try to recover when they get into the power (Yousaf, 2016). The rest
of the monetary contributions are limited to party workers, supporters, or the people who are very
closely and strongly associated with a political party or political candidates, says Chaudhry M.
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Saeed, chairman of local union council
1
(Eleazar, 2018, Dawn.com). Secondly, the economic
condition of a common man in Pakistan is not good enough to contribute to a political campaign
of a political party or political candidate. Third, the study’s population was limited to university
students and donating money for a political party or political candidate is beyond the spending
limits of the students as most of the students are dependent on their parents for living and
educational expenses. Further, the highest level of online participation among university students
was found in political activities of posting the text, pictures, videos, and slogans of any political
party. Supporters of political parties in their friend’s networks further share these posts.
For offline political participation, the most practiced activity was to discuss the political issues in
real-life settings such as classroom, college, university, or in other group gatherings. One of the
traits of group discussions is that not even all group members are speaking on the issue, still,
considerably all group members are the participants. Resultantly, every member is considered as
a participant in the discussions. Nevertheless, participation in political discussions is an obvious
first step in youngsters’ political participation. In general, students from all demographic variations
appeared less interested in attending political meetings among all real-life political activities. There
were very few students, who never appealed to vote for a political party, more than 90% of students
made offline appeals to vote for a political party regardless of its frequency. These findings are
very substantial for democratic political norms. Democratic political norms can not prevail in a
country unless there is a vast majority of people who express their choice to vote for a political
candidates. The data from national election 2013 and 2018 held in Pakistan also support these
findings. Generally, students are found more active in online political activities than offline
political activities. Moreover, their online participatory behaviors predict their offline participatory
behaviors. Difference in online and offline political participation appeared more in demographic
variations. Mean difference of online and offline participation among female students was more
than male students.
6.1. Conclusion
The study is articulated to investigate the framework of social media political participation that
how the political use of social media foster engagement in different types of online and offline
political activities. Generally, the findings confirm that political use of social media enables
university students to participate actively and effectively in online and offline political activities.
The framework was based on theory of democracy (effective participation in political process) and
public sphere (freedom of political expression). The study concludes that social media as a new
public sphere provides an ample space to youngsters to express their political views openly and
freely, and enables them to participate meaningfully in democratic process through online and
offline participation. The discrepancy in online and offline political participation recommends that
1
Cost of Running an Election Campaign, Article can be accessed from https://www.dawn.com/news/1416780
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there is, still, a dire need to encourage youngsters’ participation for real-life activities to achieve
maximum consequences of democratic participation.
6.2. Recommendations
The study was based on cross-sectional data and there is a need to analyze the implications of
panel data in future. Future researches should also address the effects of bubble filters and eco-
chamber of like-minded people in reference to social media use.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The author has no known competing financial interests or personal relationship that could
influence this work.
Acknowledgments
This research paper is based on Ph.D. research work. I would like to thanks Higher Education
Commission Pakistan and German Academic Exchange Service for funding this project.
Funding Details
This work was funded by the Higher Education Commission Pakistan (HEC) [HRDI-
UESTPs/UETs, Phase-1" Batch-VI] and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
[57435474].
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