A social influence perspective on expressive political participation in Twitter: the case of #OccupyGezi

Abstract

The aim of this research is to contribute to the growing literature on online political participation by seeking a better understanding of the social determinants of action that drive expressive political participation in Twitter. Our results revealed that social influence variables explain a significant portion of variance in online political participation independently from the antecedents identified by prior literature. While social identity and group norms were significantly related with political expressive participation in Twitter, subjective norms had no significant effect. Findings are discussed within the scope of Gezi Park protests and future research directions are suggested.