MACHINE NAME = WEB 2

Social media, education and euroscepticism

UNCTAD Research Paper No. 77

We study how the advance of nationalistic and sovereigntist ideas in Europe relates to the new technologies of political communication, education, and their interaction.

Using both European-wide and national surveys, we find a strong relationship between exposure to online political activity and Euroscepticism only among less educated individuals.

When distinguishing between different forms of online political activity we also find that it is not the use of the internet per se that matters, but the specific use of social networks, like Twitter or Facebook, for obtaining information about politics.

Our results turn out to be robust to the use of instrumental variables intended to capture the speed of connection available and the relative easiness of using internet and social media.

Social Media, Education and Euroscepticism - UNCTAD Research Paper No. 77  (UNCTAD/SER.RP/2021/20)
17 Dec 2021