PSU Students Use Social Media to Obtain Election Information, Survey Finds

PSU Students Use Social Media to Obtain Election Information, Survey Finds

Social media has had a profound impact on the way we gather information about politics. Link sharing and online discussions via social media have become critical for civic engagement in the past few years.

So now we want to know--how have Penn State students been using social media to gather information on the 2012 presidential election?

A survey of nearly 60 Penn State students, conducted in October 2012, shed light on this issue. The survey was conducted by the Jimirro Center for the Study of Media Influence, an organization in the Penn State College of Communications. The center is dedicated to exploring and unveiling the relationship between the mass media and the public, as well as determining how that relationship shapes public opinion.

The results of the survey indicate that social media plays an important role in the way Penn State students obtain election information. In fact, 72.4 percent of respondents said they use sites like Facebook and Twitter to seek out information regarding the 2012 presidential election. Still, while these students use social media to seek out information, they aren’t so keen on sharing what they find themselves--56.9 percent of students said they do not share political posts on their own personal social profiles.

For those students who do use social media to share political information, beliefs, and opinions, 51.7 percent of students reported sharing such information “sometimes.” Another 24.1 percent said they did so “rarely,” and 24.1 said they do so “often.” A whopping 98.3 percent of students said their friends use social media to post their political beliefs.

Do you use social media to obtain political information or share your political beliefs? Share your thoughts in a comment below!