The Formation of Spiral of Silence on Social Media: A Case Study of Facebook
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Lin, Jin
Abstract
Based on the “Spiral of Silence” theory propounded by Noelle-Neumann in 1973, this study investigated the spiral of silence effect in communication of opinions about “legalization of same-sex marriage” on Facebook. Using an online questionnaire, this study collected 380 responses to explore Facebook users’ willingness to express opinions on controversial issues.
Results showed that the discrepancy in perception of the opinion climate cannot effectively predict an individual’s fear of isolation. As argued by previous research, one’s fear of isolation does not vary by the level of opinion discrepancy in a computer-mediated interaction context. This is because many social norms or sanctions are communicated through nonverbal cues. In a computer-mediated interaction context, these cues are excluded, and people are physically isolated. Therefore, people do not fear being isolated due to a discrepant perception of the opinion climate. In online forums, people with the strongest fear of isolation are usually not those who perceive their opinions to be in the minority but those who always take a neutral stance on all issues. These people are unwilling to express their opinions because they fear that they may be isolated by any party supporting a different opinion. As to the association between opinion climate and willingness to express, this study found a “spiral of discontent”. The analysis of the relationship between factors of fear of isolation and willingness to express showed that higher fear of isolation would lead to lower willingness to express, indicating fear of isolation is one of the predictors of willingness to express.
As suggested by previous research of the computer-mediated interaction context, willingness to express opinions in social media does not differ by gender nor by education. However, this study found lower willingness to express among older Facebook users. Besides, willingness to express cannot be effectively predicted by age of using, number of hours of using, number of children or frequency of using Facebook as a news reader. However, people who used Facebook to learn and discuss public issues more frequency tended to have higher willingness to express opinions on Facebook. The privacy setting is also a factor affecting willingness to express. People who would adjust the privacy setting before posting any opinion showed higher willingness to express compared to those who always set the privacy status as “Friends including friends’ friends”. The finding of previous research from other contexts that higher issue involvement would lead to higher willingness to express was also supported in this study.
Subjects
沉默螺旋理論
不滿足螺旋
社群媒體
臉書
同性婚姻
Type
thesis
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