Is Online Textual Political Expression Associated With Political Knowledge?

Abstract

Prior research has reliably shown a positive relationship between political talk and political knowledge. This study sought to build upon this research by assessing the association between internet-based textual political expression and political knowledge. Notably, while online textual political expression is closely linked to traditional conceptualizations of political talk, it is also different in several key ways. Accordingly, this study drew upon research and theorization in the areas of political talk, online expression, and communication self-effects to explore the association between political commentary frequency on Facebook and performance on a political knowledge quiz. Moreover, we investigated the degree to which expression-apparent elaborative thinking levels were differentially associated with political knowledge. The results indicated that Facebook-based textual political expression was, as predicted, positively associated with political knowledge. Therein, we found that textual political expression indicative of high levels of elaboration was much more strongly associated with political knowledge levels than textual political expression that was indicative of comparatively lower levels of elaboration. Finally, exploratory analyses suggested that highly elaborative textual political expression was at least as strongly related to political knowledge as traditional media consumption variables.