Political discussion via Internet social network: Comparative study on political participation between Japan and France

2018 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18F17312
• Research Institution: Doshisha University
• Principal Investigator: 池田 謙一 同志社大学, 社会学部, 教授 (30151286)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): AUDEMARD JULIEN 同志社大学, 社会学部, 外国人特別研究員
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-25 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: social network / internet / political participation / political discussion / social capital / Twitter / Facebook

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

We proposed to implement a survey with Facebook and Twitter users in Japan and France, a name generator survey. The survey was auto-administrated online in 2018, from May 20th to 31st to 800 French and Japanese users of Facebook and Twitter, divided in 400 respondents each country;and each of Facebook and Twitter users. The average response rate was 57%. One of our findings was SNS neither have pessimistic harmful nor ideally beneficial effects on social capital. If political discussion networks on SNS primarily lead to more homogeneity, we saw that heterogeneity can also arise from online discussion, especially for those who are less engaged in politics.

Current Status of Research Progress

1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.

Reason

当初予定したとおりの研究を実行できており、日仏のソーシャルメディア上での政治的議論の効果に関する文化比較論文を執筆中である。

Strategy for Future Research Activity

2018年度に取得したデータの論文化をさらに推進するとともに、2019年度にはさらに改善された調査を再度実施し、研究目的により深化したデータ分析を可能とする。