Cross-Media Usage Repertoires and Their Political Impacts: The Case of China

Abstract

This study takes a repertoire-oriented approach to examining how social and traditional media usage affect political engagement in China. Building on previous studies and giving them a new direction, we examine how various social media platforms and traditional media outlets are combined in cross-media repertoires of young Chinese adults. We do this with the help of survey data collected in mainland China. Using the Step-3 approach of latent class analysis, we then consider how these repertoires can be explained by various individual and contextual factors and what impact the repertoires themselves have on various forms of political involvement. The study identifies 6 distinctive media repertoires: digitally focused, communication oriented, minimal users, moderate omnivores, voracious omnivores, and print interested. Repertoires are mainly correlated with age, education, and perceived media credibility. In China, young adults with the most omnivorous and print-oriented media repertoires display the highest levels of political trust, political interest, and online political engagement. The study also discusses the implications of these results.