Facebook Role in Active Political Participation: Effects of Privacy, Online Participation and Exposure

Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to explore the impact of Facebook’s privacy over Jordanian youth’s application of the social network in politically oriented actions. The paper also attempted to explore the impact of online political participation via Facebook over users’ exposure to political content and their future intentions of active political participation. To examine the paper’s proposed model and hypotheses, quantitative data was collected through a survey of 381 BA students at one Jordanian university. Empirical findings have rejected the hypothesis suggesting a direct impact of users’ perceptions of Facebook privacy over their online political participation via Facebook. Nevertheless, the actual application of Facebook in political participation had significant direct effects over both exposure to online political content via Facebook and users’ intentions of active political participation. Based on those findings, the paper reachescertain conclusions, introduces some recommendations, and suggests further avenues for future research.

Keywords: Facebook, Privacy, Online Political Participation, Exposure, Intentions of Active Political participation.