Predictors of Opinion Leadership in EU Affairs Among EU Interested Social Media Users
(2021) SKOM12 20211Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- A recurring argument in scholarly literature is that the EU is suffering from a democratic deficit in which its institutional legitimacy is being questioned by the public. To remedy this issue and gain public legitimacy, the EU has over the last 20 years developed a public communications approach to engage citizens in European affairs and to create a European public sphere. However, the EU has not yet been able to close the perceived gap to its citizenry despite ambitious engagement campaigns. This thesis argues that a more strategic communication approach is needed for the EU to reach its objectives. Highly influential individuals in EU affairs, namely EU opinion leaders, could be part of the solution. This thesis studies EU opinion... (More)
- A recurring argument in scholarly literature is that the EU is suffering from a democratic deficit in which its institutional legitimacy is being questioned by the public. To remedy this issue and gain public legitimacy, the EU has over the last 20 years developed a public communications approach to engage citizens in European affairs and to create a European public sphere. However, the EU has not yet been able to close the perceived gap to its citizenry despite ambitious engagement campaigns. This thesis argues that a more strategic communication approach is needed for the EU to reach its objectives. Highly influential individuals in EU affairs, namely EU opinion leaders, could be part of the solution. This thesis studies EU opinion leadership in EU interested social media users to understand who opinion leaders in this context are and if informational media use and political factors (political participation, political expression in social media, political partisanship) can predict EU opinion leadership. A number of hypotheses were developed based on opinion leadership theory, in the theory of the two-step flow of communication, and related fields. A survey was distributed to EU interested social media users on Facebook and LinkedIn (N=220). The results from the statistical analysis showcased that EU opinion leaders were highly educated. Univariable linear regression analyses showed that informational media use and the political factors were associated to EU opinion leadership, but when the whole theoretical model was tested in a multiple linear regression analysis, only informational media use remained associated with EU opinion leadership. Using stepwise regression, the strongest model to predict EU opinion leadership consisted of informational media use and political expression in social media, in combination with the variables age and whether the participant voted in the last election to the European Parliament. These results can be used in designing more efficient public communication strategies to engage EU citizens in EU affairs and close the perceived gap between the EU and its citizens. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9050521
- author
- Öberg, Amanda LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- European Union, Opinion Leadership, Public Communication, Citizen Engagement, European Public Sphere
- language
- English
- id
- 9050521
- date added to LUP
- 2021-07-01 10:17:27
- date last changed
- 2021-07-01 10:17:27
@misc{9050521,
abstract = {{A recurring argument in scholarly literature is that the EU is suffering from a democratic deficit in which its institutional legitimacy is being questioned by the public. To remedy this issue and gain public legitimacy, the EU has over the last 20 years developed a public communications approach to engage citizens in European affairs and to create a European public sphere. However, the EU has not yet been able to close the perceived gap to its citizenry despite ambitious engagement campaigns. This thesis argues that a more strategic communication approach is needed for the EU to reach its objectives. Highly influential individuals in EU affairs, namely EU opinion leaders, could be part of the solution. This thesis studies EU opinion leadership in EU interested social media users to understand who opinion leaders in this context are and if informational media use and political factors (political participation, political expression in social media, political partisanship) can predict EU opinion leadership. A number of hypotheses were developed based on opinion leadership theory, in the theory of the two-step flow of communication, and related fields. A survey was distributed to EU interested social media users on Facebook and LinkedIn (N=220). The results from the statistical analysis showcased that EU opinion leaders were highly educated. Univariable linear regression analyses showed that informational media use and the political factors were associated to EU opinion leadership, but when the whole theoretical model was tested in a multiple linear regression analysis, only informational media use remained associated with EU opinion leadership. Using stepwise regression, the strongest model to predict EU opinion leadership consisted of informational media use and political expression in social media, in combination with the variables age and whether the participant voted in the last election to the European Parliament. These results can be used in designing more efficient public communication strategies to engage EU citizens in EU affairs and close the perceived gap between the EU and its citizens.}},
author = {{Öberg, Amanda}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Predictors of Opinion Leadership in EU Affairs Among EU Interested Social Media Users}},
year = {{2021}},
}