Thai Millennials’Online Political Engagement: Investigating Motivation Behinds Their Engagement on Facebook
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Abstract
Facebook mobilizes society by facilitating users to engage in political issues quite freely. Motivations behind this political communication phenomenon remain to be explored in greater detail. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 225 samples of Thai Millennials in Bangkok to examine how Selective Exposure (SE), Willingness to Self-Censor (WSC) and political news interest, influence their political engagement (Like, Comment, and Share) on Facebook. Results of Multiple Regression Analysis showed that the samples’SE, WSC and political news interest significantly influenced their engagement with news article related to politics in general, and engagement with remunerative, and relational contents based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT). Informational contents were significantly influenced by WSC and political news interest, whereas entertaining contents were significantly influenced by SE and political news interest.
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