Integrating uses and gratifications theory and the cognitive/communication mediation model: this study examines Chinese students' use of social media and subsequent impact on political participation. An integrative framework is proposed where media use, political expression, and political cognitions (efficacy and knowledge) play important mediating roles between audience motivations and participation. Structural equation analyses showed support for the integrated model. Guidance and social utility motivations exhibited different indirect effects on online and offline participation through social media news, discussion, and political efficacy. Entertainment motivations exhibited no direct or indirect effects. Contrary to expectations and previous literature, surveillance motivations exhibited negative direct and indirect effects on offline participation, which may be attributed to the particular Chinese social and political context. Implications of the findings are discussed.

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This study investigates the role of online media in mobilizing large-scale collective action. Adopting the theoretical framework of collective action space, we formulated the organizing process of collective action into a model with two dimensions—hierarchy and closure—and analyzed how they influence mobilization. The model was tested against Twitter data collected during the 2020 Hong Kong protest, including a total of 54,365 tweets posted by 14,706 distinct users between 1 May and 31 May 2020. Social networks analysis metrics— k-coreness and brokerage of individual users in their following networks—were employed to quantify the organizing process of the protest and estimate their effects on message virality. The results showed that messages generated by users who occupied peripheral positions (i.e., lower k-coreness) and by those connecting others within closed communities (i.e., lower brokerage) were more likely to diffuse than those generated by central users or those who bridged different communities. That is, online media facilitate mobilization in a decentralized yet fragmented fashion. This article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications of the current findings and suggests the directions for future research on collective action on online media.

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