Disentangling the Longitudinal Relationship Between Social Media Use, Political Expression and Political Participation: What Do We Really Know?

IF 3.2 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Communication Research Pub Date : 2026-04-10 DOI:10.1177/00936502261430387

Jörg Matthes, Andreas Nanz, Marlis Stubenvoll, Ruta Kaskeleviciute

{"title":"Disentangling the Longitudinal Relationship Between Social Media Use, Political Expression and Political Participation: What Do We Really Know?","authors":"Jörg Matthes, Andreas Nanz, Marlis Stubenvoll, Ruta Kaskeleviciute","doi":"10.1177/00936502261430387","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The reciprocal associations between social media use, political expression, and political participation are central to communication scholars. The cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) represents a common and widely advocated analytic approach to test these relationships. However, it fails to separate within- from between-person effects. In this paper, we propose a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) disaggregating within-person and between-person effects. Using three-wave panel data, we demonstrate positive associations between social media use, political expression and online as well as offline participation consistently across waves using the CLPM. However, these relations could not be observed at the within-person effects level with the RI-CLPM. This suggests that the associations between social media use, political expression and political participation are mainly driven by trait-like differences and not by individual changes over time, fundamentally challenging some of the key conclusions of previous research. Implications for communication scholarship are discussed.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"124 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2026-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Communication Research","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502261430387","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The reciprocal associations between social media use, political expression, and political participation are central to communication scholars. The cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) represents a common and widely advocated analytic approach to test these relationships. However, it fails to separate within- from between-person effects. In this paper, we propose a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) disaggregating within-person and between-person effects. Using three-wave panel data, we demonstrate positive associations between social media use, political expression and online as well as offline participation consistently across waves using the CLPM. However, these relations could not be observed at the within-person effects level with the RI-CLPM. This suggests that the associations between social media use, political expression and political participation are mainly driven by trait-like differences and not by individual changes over time, fundamentally challenging some of the key conclusions of previous research. Implications for communication scholarship are discussed.

查看原文本刊更多论文

解开社交媒体使用、政治表达和政治参与之间的纵向关系：我们到底知道什么？

社交媒体使用、政治表达和政治参与之间的相互关联是传播学学者关注的核心问题。交叉滞后面板模型（cross-lag panel model， CLPM）是一种常用的、被广泛提倡的检验这些关系的分析方法。然而，它无法区分人与人之间的影响。在本文中，我们提出了一个随机截距交叉滞后面板模型（RI-CLPM）分解人内和人之间的影响。使用三波面板数据，我们证明了使用CLPM的社交媒体使用、政治表达和在线以及离线参与之间的正相关关系。然而，在RI-CLPM的个人效应水平上，这些关系不能被观察到。这表明，社交媒体使用、政治表达和政治参与之间的联系主要是由特征差异驱动的，而不是由个体随时间的变化驱动的，这从根本上挑战了之前研究的一些关键结论。讨论了对传播学研究的启示。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Communication Research COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

17.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Empirical research in communication began in the 20th century, and there are more researchers pursuing answers to communication questions today than at any other time. The editorial goal of Communication Research is to offer a special opportunity for reflection and change in the new millennium. To qualify for publication, research should, first, be explicitly tied to some form of communication; second, be theoretically driven with results that inform theory; third, use the most rigorous empirical methods; and fourth, be directly linked to the most important problems and issues facing humankind. Critieria do not privilege any particular context; indeed, we believe that the key problems facing humankind occur in close relationships, groups, organiations, and cultures.