Social media behavior during uprisings: selective sharing and avoidance in the China (Hong Kong), Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon protests

Abstract

Purpose This study examines the use of social media by individuals during protests in China (Hong Kong), Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. Method Surveys in the four countries assess the relationship between people’s attitudes toward the protests and their selection bias on social media, manifested through selective sharing and selective avoidance. Findings Regardless of the different political and media systems in each country, social media usage was largely similar. Overall, our findings established that people’s attitude strength toward the protests was associated with their selective sharing behavior; those who scored high on supporting the protests were more likely than those who scored high on opposing the protests to share news that supports the protests, and vice versa. As for selective avoidance, social media protest news use emerged as the strongest predictor. The more individuals followed and shared protest news on social media, the more likely they were to engage in selective avoidance by hiding or deleting comments, unfriending or unfollowing people, and blocking or reporting people for posting comments with which they disagreed. Implications For selective sharing, our findings are consistent with extant research that found individuals with strong attitudes toward certain issues are more likely to express their opinions on social media. Also, for selective avoidance, our study supports the literature, which shows individuals practice selective avoidance to clean up their environment from attitude-inconsistent information, especially on social media, and exceedingly so during protests and crises. Value Selection bias places individuals into secluded groups and contributes to political divisions and polarization. Research has focused on online selective exposure and on offline selective avoidance, but online selective avoidance and sharing have rarely been studied. Our study contributes to emerging research on selective sharing and selective avoidance online during a period of polarization in multiple countries.

Selective exposure during uprisings: A comparative study of news uses in Chile, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon

“…Another plausible explanation is the shift in tone that some media displayed during the protests, particularly in Lebanon where some media not only adopted the protestors' cause but also attacked certain politicians and parties they previously supported (Kozman and Melki, 2022). This shift may have shaken the bond of trust between some partisan audiences and the media they had previously trusted.…”

“…However, like Iraq, the media scene reflects local sectarian divisions and regional political alliances. Major political groups control most prominent media outlets in the country (Kozman and Melki, 2022). The coverage of the 2019 protests in Lebanon was largely biased and sharply divided between those supporting and those opposing the protests, especially Television news (Melki and Kozman, 2021b).…”

“…In periods of political and economic turmoil, people's media consumption and production habits change, allowing for new patterns of selectivity (Comninos, 2013; Kozman and Melki, 2022; Melki and Kozman, 2021b; Schoemaker and Stremlau, 2014). In 2019, the world witnessed a series of uprisings, including in Chile, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon.…”

“…However, different factors moderated this relationship, including the media platform and the level of people's political involvement (Tsfati and Ariely, 2014). For example, during Lebanon's 2019 uprising, people trusted television stations the most, in comparison to radio, online outlets, and newspapers (Kozman and Melki, 2022). Sang et al (2020) also revealed that while both trust and distrust predict engagement with online news, the mode of engagement could not be predicted by trust However, strongly politicized media decreased people's trust (Schranz et al, 2018).…”

(Gender) Politics in the Field: The Precarities of Diasporic (Women) Scholars of Iranian Politics during and after the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ Uprising

“…Additionally, the extent to which social media can exacerbate divisions and echo chambers, specifically during social uprisings, has already been observed (Kozman et al 2022). A particularly salient issue in the context of the WLF uprising is the targeting of women scholars, some of whom experienced (social media) harassment after providing their analysis of the situation in Iran after the WLF uprising.…”