Do Intensive Public Debates on Direct-Democratic Ballots Narrow the Gender Gap in Social Media Use?

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Version: Final published version
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Serval ID
serval:BIB_A9FA84058A1D
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Do Intensive Public Debates on Direct-Democratic Ballots Narrow the Gender Gap in Social Media Use?
Journal
Media and Communication
Author(s)
Bernhard Laurent, Kübler Daniel
ISSN
2183-2439
Publication state
Published
Issued date
31/01/2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
11
Number
1
Pages
31-42
Language
english
Abstract
Despite the growing importance of new technologies, research on individual opinion formation in the digital domain is still in its infancy. This article empirically examines citizens’ use of social media in the context of direct democracy. Based on previous work, we expect men to form their opinions on social media more frequently than women (gender gap hypothesis). In the second step, we focus on the contextual level by examining the role campaigns play in reducing this discrepancy. More specifically, we hypothesize that the presumed gender gap narrows in accordance with the increasing intensity of public debates that precede ballots (interaction hypothesis). The empirical analysis draws on 13 post-ballot surveys held at Switzerland’s federal level from 2016 to 2020 and supports both the gender gap and the interaction hypotheses.
Keywords
Campaign, Digitization, Direct democracy, Gender gap, Media coverage, Political communication, Public debate, Social media, Switzerland
Open Access
Yes
Create date
01/02/2023 18:13
Last modification date
02/02/2023 8:13
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