مشارکت انتخاباتی در ایران: تاثیرات مستقیم و غیر مستقیم رسانه‌های اجتماعی از طریق ارزش‌های رهایی و سکولاریسم

هر چند مشارکت سیاسی دارای سطوح مختلفی است، اما به نظر می رسد، شرکت در انتخابات به دلایل گوناگون در جمهوری اسلامی ایران به مهمترین عنصر مشارکت سیاسی تبدیل شده است؛ بنابراین، مطالعه و تبیین مشارکت انتخاباتی، یکی از موضوع های مهم پژوهشهای آکادمیک در ایران است در این راستا، پرسش اصلی پژوهش حاضر این است که رسانه های اجتماعی، از طریق متغیرهای میانجی ارزش های رهایی و سکولاریسم، بر مشارکت انتخاباتی چه تاثیرات مستقیم و غیر مستقیمی می تواند داشته باشد؟» در این پژوهش که نوعی تحلیل ثانویه به شمار می آید، از موج هفتم داده های بین المللی پیمایش ارزشهای جهانی در مورد ایران استفاده شده است. یافته های پژوهش حاضر نشان می دهد که هر چند رسانه های اجتماعی به طور مستقیم تاثیر معناداری بر مشارکت انتخاباتی نداشته اند، اما به گونه ای غیر مستقیم و از طریق متغیرهای میانجی ارزشهای رهایی و سکولاریسم به طور معناداری سبب کاهش مشارکت انتخاباتی شهروندان شده اند.

electoral participation in iran: direct and indirect effects of social media through values of liberation and secularism

with the internet and social media development, various fields have been changed and transformed in iran. politics is a field that has gained significance inrecent years under the influence of social media. some researchers believe that social media has become a valuable tool for citizens’ participation in politicalactivities in democratic and non-democratic countries (zhang & lin, 2014). with the increased access to the internet, people have had more tools to use theinternet in recent years. although people only had access to the internet through computers in the past, in recent years, smartphones have facilitated access to theinternet and internet news for citizens. smartphones have provided more opportunities for people to use social media, increasing the importance and roleof social media in civil society and especially in political fields. the use of social media has changed citizens’ information and news sources (zhao & ling, 2013),so social media provides more news and political information than traditional media. in this regard, it seems that with the increase in citizens’ politicalknowledge and political discussions on social media, the level of people’s trust in political institutions and norms has changed, and probably the type of politicalbehavior and the level of their political participation will be affected (zhang & lin, 2014). of course, different theories and findings about how social mediaaffects political participation exist. while gill et al. (2012) believed that using social media positively affects political participation, margolis and resnick(2000) showed that it acts as an obstacle to citizens’ participation in political spheres. moreover, the research results of zhang et al. (2010) showed that although social media has had a positive effect on civic participation, this media has not had anysignificant effect on political and electoral participation. therefore, it seems that there are different theories and findings at the global level, and it is not clear which of them applies to iranian society. however, most of the related research conducted in iran, such as shams and forghani (2017) and ashtarian and amirzadeh (2014), showed that social media negatively affected electoral participation.