Leveling or tilting the playing field: Social networking sites and offline political communication inequality

• We examine whether political use of social networking sites ameliorates the existing socio-economic stratification in offline political communication.
• Analyses of a national survey demonstrate that the impact of individuals’ socio-economic status is much weaker on political expression via SNS than on offline political discussion.
• It is also found that political use of SNS reduces the strength of the link between individuals’ SES and offline discussion.
• We conclude that the less stratified political expression on SNS functions as an opportunity to compensate for offline resource deficits among underprivileged citizens and thus narrows political inequality at least in the context of citizen political discussion.

Building on a resource theory, this study investigates (a) how individuals’ socio-economic status is related to political communication in offline situations and on social networking sites and (b) whether political expression on SNS improves socio-economic stratification in offline political discussion. Analyses of a national survey demonstrate that the impact of individuals’ socio-economic status (SES) is much weaker on political expression via SNS than on offline political discussion. It is also found that the political use of SNS reduces the strength of the link between individuals’ SES and offline discussion. Implications of these findings for the Internet and political inequality are discussed.