A presentation by Shelley Boulianne (Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society). This event is part of the Digital Governance Research Colloquium hosted by the Centre for Digital Governance.
Citizens have increasingly diversified their use of social media platforms raising questions about which platforms are adopted and for what purposes. We consider how platform architecture (algorithmic filtering and networking structures) explains the relationship between users’ political dispositions (political interest, political ideology) and the usage of seven social media platforms. We use survey data from four countries (Canada, France, the US, and UK) gathered in 2019 and 2021 (n=12,302) with a focus on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. We find that user-level characteristics (political interest and ideology) predict the adoption and political uses of all platforms, but Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp are distinctive. We relate this finding to lower levels of algorithmic filtering and distinct network features compared to other platforms. Our findings reflect upon the structure-agency relationship between platform architecture and user characteristics in explaining platform adoption and subsequent use for political purposes.
Shelley Boulianne earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin‐Madison. She conducts research on media use and public opinion, as well as civic and political engagement, using meta‐analysis techniques, experiments, and surveys. She is currently a research fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. Beginning January 2023, she will be Professor of Digital Political Communication at ESPOL- Université Catholique de Lille in France.
