Mediation or Moderation? Examining How Politically Like-Minded and Dissimilar Conversations Influence the Relationship Between Social Media Political Information Consumption and Political Participation

Research has shown that social media conversations with like-minded and politically dissimilar others are an important part of the political process. Yet more needs to be done to clarify the roles that these two types of social media-based conversations play in the political process. A stratified quota online survey was used to determine whether politically like-minded and dissimilar conversations mediate or moderate the relationship between social media-based political information consumption and political participation. Findings show support for the mediating, but not moderating role of politically based social media conversations. Social media political information consumption has a positive indirect relationship with political participation via both politically like-minded and dissimilar conversations. Contrary to previous research showing that politically dissimilar conversations impede political participation, results suggest that such conversations actually increase political participation. Implications of these findings are discussed.