Connecting social media use with gaps in knowledge and participation in a protest context: the case of candle light vigil in South Korea

Abstract

This study sheds light on the recent use of social media for protests, with the 2016 South Korean candle light vigils as the case study. An extensive amount of literature has explored social media’s potential for informing and mobilizing the public to engage in protest activities. Previous research has mainly focused on the direct effect of social media on protest engagement. Moving beyond the direct effect, this paper sought a better understanding of social media’s role in the democratic process by examining how social media affects political knowledge and protest participation, depending on an individual’s political interest level. To test these relationships, this study used survey data collected in South Korea during the mass candlelight vigils in South Korea in 2016 (N = 922). Findings suggest that the knowledge gap narrowed amongst those with high social media use, mainly due to a greater knowledge drop for those with high political interest. On the other hand, when it comes to participation, the participation gap widened amongst those with high social media use, largely due to a greater increase in participation for those with high political interest. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.