When people think about social media, they think about the upsides of it. It speaks to what they want in democracy that they're not getting. They feel disconnected, voiceless, and not empowered. So, if there's ways that social media can play a role in empowering people and giving them a voice and holding accountable leaders that they don't think listen to them, those are upsides and that's some of the reasons why you get more positive evaluations of social media than we might think.

Richard Wike

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Richard Wike is director of global attitudes research at Pew Research Center. He conducts research and writes about international public opinion on a variety of topics, such as America’s global image, the rise of China, democracy, and globalization. His latest report (coauthored with Laura Silver, Janell Fetterolf, Christine Huang, Sarah Austin, Laura Clancy and Sneha Gubbala) is   "Social Media Seen as Mostly Good for Democracy Across Many Nations, But U.S. is a Major Outlier."

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:47
• Role of Survey Research - 2:47
• Views on Social Media and Democracy - 5:27
• Differences by Age - 16:35
• Social Media Engagement - 24:23

 
Key Links

"Social Media Seen as Mostly Good for Democracy Across Many Nations, But U.S. is a Major Outlier" by Richard Wike, Laura Silver, Janell Fetterolf, Christine Huang, Sarah Austin, Laura Clancy and Sneha Gubbala

"Liberal Democracy’s Crisis of Confidence" by Richard Wike and Janell Fetterolf in the Journal of Democracy

Learn more about Richard Wike at the Pew Research Center

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