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Political Effects of the Internet and Social Media
- Ekaterina Zhuravskaya1, Maria Petrova2,3,4,5,6, and Ruben Enikolopov2,3,4,5,6
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1Paris School of Economics, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 75014 Paris, France; email: [email protected] 2Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08002 Barcelona, Spain 3New Economic School, Moscow 121353, Russia 4Institute of Political Economy and Governance, 08005 Barcelona, Spain 5Graduate School of Economics, 08005 Barcelona, Spain 6Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain
- Vol. 12:415-438 (Volume publication date August 2020) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-081919-050239
- First published as a Review in Advance on May 26, 2020
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Copyright © 2020 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved
Abstract
How do the Internet and social media affect political outcomes? We review empirical evidence from the recent political economy literature, focusing primarily on work that considers traits that distinguish the Internet and social media from traditional off-line media, such as low barriers to entry and reliance on user-generated content. We discuss the main results about the effects of the Internet in general, and social media in particular, on voting, street protests, attitudes toward government, political polarization, xenophobia, and politicians’ behavior. We also review evidence on the role of social media in the dissemination of fake news, and we summarize results about the strategies employed by autocratic regimes to censor the Internet and to use social media for surveillance and propaganda. We conclude by highlighting open questions about how the Internet and social media shape politics in democracies and autocracies.
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