Participatory Inequality in the Online and Offline Political Engagement in Thailand

Does social media reinforce or transcend socioeconomic divides in political participation? The mobilization thesis suggests that social media use can bring previously disengaged or under-represented groups into politics. The reinforcement thesis, in contrast, posits that social media has little impact on existing patterns of political participation and can, in fact, exacerbate them. I test these two hypotheses in the context of street protests in Thailand which occurred from November 2013 through March 2014. I contrast data from the Asia Foundation’s socioeconomic survey of over 300 street demonstrators with unique socio-demographic profile data drawn from 600 Facebook users affiliated with either the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) or the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). I find that overall, political participants on Facebook were of lower socioeconomic status and a younger demographic profile than offline participants for both sides of the political divide. These findings support the mobilization claim by demonstrating that there is less participatory inequality among online participants. The key implications of this study are two-fold. First, data from Thailand permits an examination of socioeconomic stratification of political participation both online and offline in a country outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and with profound digital inequality. Second, the similarities in the socioeconomic backgrounds of the UDD and PDRC online supporters, in stark contrast to their offline counterparts, suggest that social media engagement has a mitigating effect on participatory inequalities. Facebook thus provides a new avenue for those not engaged in offline political activities.

泰国网络和线下政治活动中的参与不平等

关键词：社交媒体，社会经济地位，参与，泰国，不平等。

社交媒体是能加强还是会克服政治参与中的社会经济地位差别？动员理论认为使用社交媒体会将从前不参与政治或未受充分代表的群体带入到政治中。与此相反，强化理论则认为社交媒体对现有政治参与模式鲜有影响，实际上反而会使其进一步恶化。 我以发生在2013年11月到2014年5月期间的泰国街头抗议为背景测试了这两个理论假设。 我比较了从亚洲基金会对300位街头示威人士的社会经济地位调查中得到的数据和从包括持反政府立场的人民民主改革委员会以及支持政府的反独裁民主联盟的共600位脸书用户的账户获取的独特的社会-人口概貌的数据。我发现与线下参与者相比，脸书的政治参与者不论属于运动中对立面的哪一方，总体上社会经济地位都相对较低且在人口统计特征上更年轻。 这些研究发现表明网络参与者中参与不平等的水平较低，从而支持了动员理论。本研究具有双重的关键意义。首先，来自泰国的数据使我们得以在一个具有高度数字化不平等的非经合组织国家检验网络和线下政治参与中的社会经济分层；第二，鉴于反独裁民主联盟支持者与他们的对手人民民主改革委员会相比普遍境遇较差，他们的网络支持者（与人民民主改革委员会相比）的较小的社会经济地位差距表明在网络政治活动中参与不平等的影响受到削弱。由此，脸书为那些不会参与线下政治活动的人士提供了一个新的参与渠道。

Translated from English by Li Guo