Social media and online political participation: The mediating role of exposure to cross-cutting and like-minded perspectives

• Blog use and SNS use are positively related to online political participation.
• Like-minded exposure mediates the relationship between blog use and political participation.
• Cross-cutting exposure mediates the relationship between SNS use and political participation.

This study examines (1) how social media use (i.e., blogs and social network sites (SNSs)) influences individuals’ online political participation; and (2) the mediating role of exposure to political perspectives (i.e., exposure to like-minded and cross-cutting viewpoints) in the relationship between social media use and online political participation. The results show that both blog and SNS use are positively related to online political participation. Most interestingly, exposure to like-minded perspectives mediates the relationship between individuals’ blog use and online political participation while exposure to cross-cutting perspectives mediates the relationship between SNS use and participation.