Microblogs and civic participation among Chinese undergraduate and graduate students

The social scientific study of the effect of media use on political participation in the western contexts has been underway for several decades. However, it is a more complicated issue in the Chinese context, given China's current political institutions and long imperial history. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between the political use of Sina Weibo, political attitudes, and political belief among Chinese undergraduate and graduate students. Data were collected from 272 Chinese students through convenience sampling. Findings indicated that people believe more deeply in individual influence with society tend to have more engagement in Weibo political activities. People perceive more intimidation from information insecurity has less online expression on Weibo. Regarding political belief in nationalism, extremists have more opinion expression on Weibo, more active participation in other Weibo activities, and more passive Weibo engagement than moderates. In relation to cultural liberalism, extreme people had more passive Weibo engagement than moderate people However, as for political conservatism, students with extreme beliefs have less active participation in other Weibo activities than those with moderate belief. And right-wing students have more passive Weibo engagement than left-wing ones. As with following choices, people relying more on non-governmental information sources perceive more intimidation from both information insecurity and 50-cent party, and tend to be more culturally as well as politically liberal. This study contributes to understanding the predictive role of political belief for engagement in political activities online, and sheds light on the way to categorize Weibo accounts according to their content in order to explore the relationships between Weibo following choices and other variables.