Network Political Participation Of Youth And Its Influencing Factors

Exploring the dimensions of youth political participation and the internal influence mechanism will help decision-makers to“Expand the orderly participation of youth in cyber politics ”.Based on the analysis of 691 questionnaires and 25in-depth interviews,we find that:First,The present situation of youth participation in network politics:(1)In terms of "participation level",the frequency of youth’s online political information acquisition,online political opinion expression and online political action is above the middle,below the middle and below the low level;Compared with official channels,youth are more inclined to obtain political information through unofficial channels.(2)In terms of "participation characteristics",most young people are active in cyberspace as "silent bystanders",that is,"they pay attention to online political information,but hardly participate in any discussion and action".Second,The influential factors of youth political participation in Internet:(1)In terms of "demographic variables",men’s participation frequency in online political information acquisition is higher than women’s;Age has a significant positive impact on online political opinion expression;The academic level has a significant positive impact on the access to online political information;In terms of political outlook,the frequency of youth’s online political information acquisition is from high to low,which is in order of CPC members/probationary members,Communist Youth League members,the masses and people from democratic parties.(2)In the "external environment(S)",network regulation perception does not produce a single“Inhibition”effect,but a dual effect of both promotion and inhibition;Democratic values can indirectly enhance the willingness of youth to participate in online politics by enhancing their political interest and sense of political efficacy.However,from the perspective of practical logic,the process of democratic values from "knowing" to "doing" still has a long way to go.(3)In terms of "internal(O)",the motivation of youth’s online political information acquisition includes internal motivation(satisfaction of interest and thirst for knowledge)and external motivation(integration into the circle and promotion of personal achievement);The motivation of the expression of online political opinions includes emotional level(instantaneous emotional response and traditional patriotic emotion)and rational level(personal interest expression and adherence to values);The motivation of online political action-young people’s political interest and sense of political efficacy determine their "whether to take action";Social impact and performance expectations determine "what actions to take".On this basis,it puts forward relevant suggestions on how to guide young people to participate in online politics in an orderly manner in four aspects: network regulation,youth political education,official media and online political inquiry platform.