The Impact Of Social Media On Political Engagement

Since the emergence of the Internet in 1969,great changes have taken place in the fields of human society,economy,politics,culture and so on with the tide of the third scientific and technological revolution.As a result of the development of Internet and network media to a certain extent,social media provides more possibilities and fairness for people to participate in economic,political,cultural and other social activities.In the past political life,the influence of traditional media such as radio and television on the public’s political participation was only one-way.The popularity of social media unblocked the two-way channel between the public and political participation and promoted the public’s enthusiasm for political participation.This paper uses data analysis,literature induction and case analysis to conduct various researches on the2016 US presidential election under the influence of social media.Through analyzing the political participation behaviors of political parties and the public through social media in the 2016 US presidential election,this paper focuses on and selects issues such as political mobilization,party propaganda,political entertainment,political polarization,voter voting behavior and so on in the 2016 US presidential election.This paper sorts out the influential factors of social media on political parties and people’s political participation in the 2016 presidential election in the United States,and based on this,studies many factors of social media influencing people’s political participation.Based on Parry G’s theoretical model of political participation,this paper analyzes the influence of social media on the way,degree and quality of political participation,and obtains the multidimensional influence of social media on the breadth and depth of people’s political participation in the world today,as well as the mutual influence of the way,degree and quality of political participation from the perspective of social media.As the twin relationship between political participation and social media becomes apparent,it is more urgent to face up to and correct political participation in social media.This paper has certain reference significance for solving the problems of how to view the interaction between social media and politicalparticipation,how to identify political information in mass data and participate in politics rationally,and how to learn from the positive factors of western political participation in the social media environment in Chinese context.