User:Tessklain/sandbox

When it comes to politics in social media, news use via social media is more of a democratic behavior. Although, social media is most commonly used for non-political purposes, it is believed that social media benefits democrats. Social interaction and news in regards to social media encourages diverse networks, exposure to many different political opinions, and encourages people to rethink their political views. A communication platform such as social media is persuasive, and often works to change or influence opinions when it comes to political views because of the abundance of ideas, thoughts, and opinions circulating through the social media platform. It is found that news use leads to political persuasion, therefore the more that people use social media platforms for news sources, the more their political opinions will be affected. Despite that, people are expressing less trust in their government and others due to media use- therefore social media directly affects trust in media use. It is proven that while reading newspapers there is an increase in social trust where on the contrary watching the news on television weakened trust in others and news sources. Social media, or more specifically news media- plays an important role in democratic societies because they allow for participation among citizens.Therefore when it comes to healthy democratic networks, it is crucial that that news remains true so it doesn’t affect citizens’ levels of trust. A certain amount of trust is necessary for a healthy and well functioning democratic system.


 * Political Persuasion on Social Media: Tracing direct and indirect effects of news use and social interaction
 * http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444815616224
 * Media Effects on Political and Social Trust

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/107769900007700403