THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ONLINE AND OFFLINE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH

Young people are considered to be most disengaged age segment when it comes to politics and political issues. To increase the level of political participation of young people is a socially desirable goal, especially considering the fact that they are the ones to shape the future of politics. The impact of Internet and new media development mostly effected younger generations and it can be presumed that new media, such as social networks, will continue to have a significant role in their lives. Thus, social networks can be an effective media in strategies that are aiming to increase political participation among young people. The purpose of this research is to determine to what extend do young people use social media for discussing politics and does using social networks for political information influence their online and offline political participation. The survey was conducted using online questionnaire among young people between the ages of 15 to 29. Results have shown that using Facebook for accessing and discussing political information has a positive influence on the intention for both online and offline political participation. The influence is, expectedly stronger in the case of online political participation. Twitter, however, has shown to have a significant influence on online political participation, but not on offline political participation of young people.