How social media use affects internal political efficacy in China: the mediating effects of social network interaction

Public discussion enhances people’s political efficacy, which is also true on social media. While past studies have focused on the effects of the size and frequency of interactions on this relationship, Heise suggested that social network quality may be more important. Therefore, the present study conducted an online survey that measured certain variables, including number of persons interacting, interaction frequency, public discussion involvement, social network evaluation, and internal political efficacy, for 624 social media (WeChat) users. It aimed to determine how these variables affect the generation of internal efficacy. The results revealed that number of persons interacting increases people’s public issue involvement and thus their internal political efficacy; moreover, they indicated that this relationship is mediated by the frequency of interaction and social network evaluation, with the latter having a stronger effect. A more critical factor in whether public discussions on social media enhance people’s internal political efficacy may be who they interact with and with whom they discuss things. This study’s findings demonstrate how affective control is embedded in the relational model of the influence of public discussions in social media on internal political efficacy.