TY - JOUR
T1 - "was it something i said?" "no, it was something you posted!" A study of the spiral of silence theory in social media contexts
AU - Gearhart, Sherice
AU - Zhang, Weiwu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
PY - 2015/4/1
Y1 - 2015/4/1
N2 - New media technologies make it necessary for scholars to reassess mass communication theories developed among legacy media. One such theory is the spiral of silence theory originally proposed by Noelle-Neumann in the 1970s. Increasing diversity of media content, selectivity, social networking site (SNS) interactivity, and the potential for anonymity have posed various challenges to its theoretical assumptions. While application of the spiral of silence in SNS contexts has been theorized, its empirical testing is scarce. To fill this void, the Pew 2012 Search, Social Networks, and Politics survey is used to test the theory. Results reveal that encountering agreeable political content predicts speaking out, while encountering disagreeable postings stifles opinion expression, supporting the spiral of silence theory in the SNS environment. However, certain uses of SNSs and psychological factors demonstrate a liberating effect on opinion expression.
AB - New media technologies make it necessary for scholars to reassess mass communication theories developed among legacy media. One such theory is the spiral of silence theory originally proposed by Noelle-Neumann in the 1970s. Increasing diversity of media content, selectivity, social networking site (SNS) interactivity, and the potential for anonymity have posed various challenges to its theoretical assumptions. While application of the spiral of silence in SNS contexts has been theorized, its empirical testing is scarce. To fill this void, the Pew 2012 Search, Social Networks, and Politics survey is used to test the theory. Results reveal that encountering agreeable political content predicts speaking out, while encountering disagreeable postings stifles opinion expression, supporting the spiral of silence theory in the SNS environment. However, certain uses of SNSs and psychological factors demonstrate a liberating effect on opinion expression.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928042728&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/cyber.2014.0443
DO - 10.1089/cyber.2014.0443
M3 - Article
C2 - 25879378
AN - SCOPUS:84928042728
SN - 2152-2715
VL - 18
SP - 208
EP - 213
JO - Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
JF - Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
IS - 4
ER -