Partisanship, Social Networks, Media Consumption and Political Attitudes in the Age of Hybridity

Political identity plays a leading role in defining people’s opinion about politicized questions. The importance of personal network and news media in communicating identity-based positions on issues high on the political agenda is not a new phenomenon. It is also well known that causality is mutual: political orientation is a strong structuring factor in friends selection and media use. However, social media (like Facebook) gives new channels and new choices here. The increased choice of possibilities in the new media environment makes it easier to find the closest argumentation which could reinforce the initial attitudes and opinions. And the same process could enhance self-selection in the case of online friends and acquaintances. In our paper, we investigate the interactions between partisanship, personal networks, use of social networks sites, news consumption and attitudes towards politicized questions in the new hybrid media environment in Hungary using the data of an online representative survey. For this study, we have addressed a recent political debate about an ambiguous act of a public official: a populist measure that was, at the same time, misuse of political power. The online survey was carried out in the run-up to the recent election campaign. The issue in focus had been high on the political agenda in the weeks before the survey. We show how offline and online activities and choices are structured along political lines; and distinguish between different types of clustering of media use and social network.