New media, new politics: Political learning efficacy and the examination of uses of social network sites for political engagement

Online social network sites (SNSs) have become active political forums in the United States and elsewhere. During the 2008 presidential election, the two major candidates directed significant resources toward the creation and maintenance of SNS profiles and pages in an effort to reach out to young voters. These efforts garnered substantial media and scholarly attention. One of the main demographic targets of these sites, individuals aged 18-25, has historically been largely apathetic toward the political process and has demonstrated a low level of engagement in politics. This may have changed in the 2008 election with a winning campaign that was well-versed in online social networking and engagement. Yet little is known about how these sites impact young voters in terms of increased participation in the electoral process and the variables that precede participation, such as political knowledge and efficacy.;A person's feeling of political efficacy, the confidence that one can both effectively participate in and influence the political process, is a determinant of political participation. This construct has been broken down into two components, internal and external political efficacy (IPE and EPE, respectively), and has been further extended into the concept of political information efficacy (PIE). The similarities between the constructs of IPE and PIE, and their respective measurement scales, suggest that the concepts may not be entirely different. There is a need for conceptual and operational clarification and validation. A measurement instrument is needed to fill the gap in the literature regarding learning and informational antecedents to political efficacy. Preliminary research indicates that political candidate social network efforts are largely tools of information provision. The proposed instrument will help answer the question of whether SNSs can be valuable political engagement tools.;With these two issues in mind, the following multi-stage research was undertaken. Using Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (1986; 1997) as a theoretical guide, the concepts are examined and sorted, and a new scale, Political Learning Efficacy, is developed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Next, the new scale is used in a nationally representative survey of 18-25 year olds (n=625) to examine the effects of previous and continued use of political social networking on PLE, political knowledge and participation with interesting and informative results.;Results show that use of social network sites for political purposes can have a positive impact on political learning efficacy and, thus, on knowledge and participation. However, these results also demonstrate that political participation through social media during the 2008 election was much lower than was anecdotally reported in the news media. In addition, online sources of news and political information are not the preferred informational source among this demographic. Contrary to conventional wisdom regarding this group, traditional media such as newspapers and televised news are reported as the preferred informational source.;This research provides a valuable new discipline-spanning measure to the political efficacy literature and helps to establish the value of candidate social networking in the political communication arena.