| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 社會學系 === 105 === This study explores the influence that the political use of social media has on political participation. Based on the 2014 Taiwan Social Change Survey (Round 6, Year 5): Citizenship by the Academia Sinica, this study examines the demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, education level, and income), political ideology, political use of social media, political efficacy, political trust, and political participation. Quantified analysis on these variables is also conducted. Following the successive social issues, such as the Dapu incident in 2010, issues regarding the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, and the death of Hung Chung-chiu in 2013, Taiwanese people’s political consciousness has continued to rise. People express personal opinions and share and exchange news information with others through the Internet. The emergence of social media magnifies the characteristics of the Internet. Empirical results of this study are listed as follows: (a) Taiwanese people’s political use of social media positively affects political participation (including activity participation and opinion expression). (b) People’s social media use has no significant influence on “activity participation” in both internal and external political efficacy. Internal political efficacy directly influences “opinion expression” and moderates the effect of social media use on “opinion expression”; by contrast, external efficacy does not have a direct effect on “opinion expression” despite its moderating effect on the relationship between social media use and “opinion expression.” (c) Political trust is a moderator that negatively moderates the relationship between political use of social media and “activity participation.” Political trust does not exert a positive moderating effect on the relationship between political use of social media and “opinion expression.”
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