University Research Proposal: Political Conflicts in Social Media

This document presents a research proposal that investigates the influence of social media on political conflicts and contentious politics. The proposal begins with an overview of the problem, highlighting how social media has reshaped communication and become a battleground for political dis...Read More

Running head: PROPOSAL
Political Conflicts in the Social Media
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................4
1.0 Overview...........................................................................................................................4
1.1 Problem statement.................................................................................................................4
1.2 Thesis statement.....................................................................................................................4
1.3 Research aim..........................................................................................................................4
1.4 Research objectives...............................................................................................................5
1.5 Research questions.................................................................................................................5
1.6 Research rationale..................................................................................................................5
1.7 Summary................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................7
2.0 Overview...........................................................................................................................7
2.1 Social Media..........................................................................................................................7
2.2 Growth and expansion of social media..................................................................................8
2.3 Significance of social media in today’s world.....................................................................12
2.4 Types of social media..........................................................................................................13
2.5 Social media used for politics..............................................................................................15
2.6 Influence of social media on conflict and contentious politics............................................16
2.7 Dealing with political conflicts over social media..............................................................17

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2.8 Summary..............................................................................................................................18
Chapter 3: Proposed research methodology..................................................................................19
3.0 Research philosophy.......................................................................................................19
3.1 Research approach...............................................................................................................19
3.2 Research design...................................................................................................................20
3.3 Research strategy.................................................................................................................20
3.4 Data collection process........................................................................................................21
3.5 Data analysis process...........................................................................................................21
3.6 Ethical considerations..........................................................................................................21
3.6 Accessibility issues..............................................................................................................22
References......................................................................................................................................23

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Timeline of Social Media...............................................................................................10
Figure 2: Global social media penetration rate..............................................................................11
Figure 3: Social media use around the world................................................................................11
Figure 4: Annual Growth of Social Media Users..........................................................................12

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Overview
The way social media has changed communication and connection, it has also re-shaped the
way wars are waged, covered and consumed. According to Bonilla & Rosa (2015), social media
is considered as the battleground of the 21st century. The use of social media has increased over
the years that have resulted in maximization of the active social users. Social media has
minimized the barriers of communication, increased the speed of communication and the ability
to be updated through this platform. However, conflicts are natural to arise as an idea might not
be preferred and supported by the billion of social media users thereby, giving rise to conflicts.
1.1 Problem statement
The social media reports protests, parades, rising gas prices, presidential platforms and
wars going on in the world to which some of the social media users agrees while other disagree.
The disagreement with the political posts on the social media leads to conflicts among the social
media users that turn violent at times. The social media users also get violent and abusive if they
do not support the political changes that give rise of words of war. This is a problem as social
media is a medium of communication and the platform of sharing views and opinions (Trottier &
Fuchs, 2014).
1.2 Thesis statement
The thesis statement is “how social media influence conflict and contentious politics and
trough what mechanism is this happening.”

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1.3 Research aim
The aim of the research is to analyze the political conflicts in the social media.
1.4 Research objectives
The objectives of the research are:
 To understand the expansion and significance of social media
 To investigate the political conflicts over the social media
 To critically analyze the mechanisms that facilitates conflict and contentious politics over
the social media
 To provide suitable recommendations for mitigating conflict and contentious politics over
the social media
1.5 Research questions
The research questions are:
 What is the significance of social media and how has it expanded over the years?
 What are the political conflicts over the social media?
 What are the mechanisms that facilitate conflict and contentious politics over the social
media?
 What are the suitable recommendations for mitigating conflict and contentious politics
over the social media?
1.6 Research rationale
This research is significant as conducting this research will help in analyzing the various
political conflicts over the social media. This study aims towards understanding and analyzing
the concept and significance of social media and its role in supporting and criticizing the various

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political scenarios. This will also help in identifying the gaps that leads to conflicts and
contentious politics over the social media and the mechanisms that are facilitating the
development of such scenarios (Kavada, 2015).
1.7 Summary
Thus, it can be summarized that though social media have given the opportunity of
communicate and express individual viewpoints and opinions without any restriction; it has
given rise to conflict and contentious politics. The social media users express them openly
regarding the political issues that give rise to debates and conflicts.

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Chapter 2: Literature review
2.0 Overview
Both independent and dependent variables are identified in this chapter based on which the
overall structure of the literature review has been formulated. The literature review of the thesis
talks and discusses about social media, its growth and expansion, its types and the significance it
has on today’s world. Knowing that social media is used largely used as a communication
platform, the political conflicts are highly prevalent on the virtual platform making it a matter of
concern. In addition to, this chapter identifies the gap as well as critically analyzes the probable
reasons that is resulting this happening.
2.1 Social Media
Advancement of technology has facilitated the use of social media since the origination.
Though the function of social media is similar, it has different definition. As commented by
Perrin (2015), social media is defined as an interactive computer-mediated technology that
allows building and sharing of information, ideas, causes and interests. However, as argued by
Scott (2015), social media is defined as the interactive 2.0 internet based application that
facilities communication regardless location and time. The core characteristics of social media
are its interactive platform that facilitates communication and connection among people
throughout the globe. The emergence of social media has brought the world population much
closer.
According to Gerbaudo (2018), the concept of social media considers it as a user-
generated platform that facilitates the posting and sharing of posts, photographs, videos and
comments. Thus, social media is used as a medium that allows the individuals or groups to

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support or criticize a cause or information. However, as criticized by Ruths and Pfeffer (2014),
social media is considered as the platform that allows the individuals or groups to create profiles
that are service-specific. The social media are accessed generally by using web-based
technologies such as laptops, desktops, smartphones and tablets. The use of these electronic
services influences interaction and communication for sharing; discussing, co-creating and
modifying user generated or pre-generated contents.
The social media platforms have more than 100,000,000 registered users that use the
virtual platform for both personal and professional use. The social media has gained popularity
over the traditional media due to advantages such as highly interactive, operative 24*7, extended
reach and transparency. Though the social media has various advantages, the definition of social
media itself highlights some drawbacks such as conflicts among the users due to difference in
opinions on a particular cause or movement. Social media is also defined as the platform
enhances the sense of individual connectedness with both real and online communities (Allcott
& Gentzkow, 2017).
2.2 Growth and expansion of social media
Since 2004, the growth of social media has been exponential, as it is used by individuals
and groups by every small and big purpose. The below picture shows the journey of social media
over the years along with the establishment of new social media platforms in the years and the
popularity gained by then over the years. The concept and emergence of social media was seen
in 2002 and since then there is no looking back for the virtual platform.

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Figure 1: Timeline of Social Media
(Source: Sustein, 2018)

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Figure 2: Global social media penetration rate
(Source: Cook, 2017)
The figure above highlights the penetration rate of social media around the globe. From
the figure it can be said that social media has grown, as the global average is approximately 31%.
Figure 3: Social media use around the world
(Source: Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016)
The above figure suggests that the number of social media users globally is 3.196
billion and is said to rise by 13% each year. The number of social media users by smartphone
was estimated 5.135 billion and is expected to rise 4% each year. For example, in 2004,
Facebook the most used social media platform had only 1 million active users. However, by the
2011 it grew so large that the population of active users on social media was considered to that
with the population of a country. This has resulted in more than 1 billion registered users with a
personal mission of connecting 5 billion people globally.

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Figure 4: Annual Growth of Social Media Users
(Source: Filo, Lock & Karg, 2015)
The above figure suggests that the use of social media has increased by 13% since
January 2013. The use of social media has increased in countries such as Saudi Arabia. Since
January 2017, Saudi Arabia has seen increase of social media use each year, that is, 17%
increase compared to the global average. Countries such as India, Ghana and Indonesia have
seen highest growth of social media, as regions of the country are getting access to internet.
2.3 Significance of social media in today’s world
Social media networks are the fastest growing industries in the world. Social media has
gained huge popularity over the years once the users have come to know about the benefits of
using the platform for the betterment of the society and for themselves. As mentioned by Dreher
(2014), one of the major advantages of social media is that it is easily accessible from places that
have internet facilities. However, as argued by Kaya and Bicen (2016), accessing social media is
an issue as still some parts of the world lack high speed internet access. The users of the social
media can communicate without the any hassle of being physically present.

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As commented by Stephen (2016), social media is significant in today’s world as this
allows the users to update themselves with the happenings around the world. Individuals have
the access to world news at the tip of their fingers. Information and news around the world
includes political issues, weather updates, marketing information and educational information.
However, as criticized by Kim, Lim and Brymer (2015), apart from having access to world news,
the users are able to either offer support towards a movement and a cause or criticize it without
any prohibition. The transparent nature of the social media platform allows all the users to share
their opinions and viewpoints that often lead to conflicts in the platform. Under certain
circumstances, the difference in opinions and viewpoints leads to verbal violence and severe
conflicts. Some of the users do not even hesitate to share abusive content about the fellow users
or the public figures. Conflict, abuse and negative comments on the social media platform results
in police action for the user that is responsible.
Also, social media is a platform that debates about critical issues that is happening around
the world. In this world of democracy, the each social media user have different viewpoints and
the social media offers them a wide and transparent platform for opposing or supporting and be a
part of the political movement of changes. Other than sharing individual opinions, the social
media platform facilitates sales maximization for the business organizations (Zhu & Chen,
2015).
2.4 Types of social media
The different types of social media platform are Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+,
YouTube, WhatsApp, Pinterest and Tumblr.

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Facebook is one of the most used and preferred social media platforms that were
launched in 2004 that has an estimated 2.2 million active users. The launch of Facebook has
helped in bringing the world population closer and together. Facebook is accessible from
smartphones, laptops and desktop and is used mainly for communication and connecting with
people around the world (Bakshy, Messing & Adamic, 2015).
LinkedIn is another type of social media platform that was launched in 2002 December
with the aim of helping individuals connect easily with large business organizations for their
latest updates and information regarding jobs. This social media platform has an estimated 590
million active members and uses this platform for establishing connections between the
employees and the employers (Utz, 2016).
Twitter is a free social media microblogging platform that provides registered members
for broadcasting small posts known as tweets. The tweets are limited to 140 characters only and
may include hyperlinks also. The main aim of Twitter platform is to ensure communication
effectively and quickly but keeping the privacy intact. As of July 2018, Twitter has 335 million
active users globally (Weller et al., 2014).
Google+ is a social media platform owned and operated by Google and is an initiative
towards connecting people around the world. This social media platform was launched in June,
2011 and has 111 million active users. This social media platform offers users to share,
communicate and connect with people around the world (Norouzizadeh Dezfouli et al., 2016).
YouTube was launched in 2005 and is one of the most used and visited websites in the
history. This is a video sharing social media platform that features videos from music, politics,

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education, documentary and live streams. The users are able to view what is happening over this
websites and has a huge impact on the users (Burgess & Green, 2018).
WhatsApp is a text message and voice message sending platform owned by Facebook
that also allows sending images and other forms of media. This social media platform has an
estimated user of one and a half billion making it the most popular messaging application in
recent times (Bouhnik & Deshen, 2014).
Pinterest is a social media platform and a mobile application that requires the users to
register for using. The users are able to upload, save, sort and manage videos and contents
known as pins. This social media platform has 250 million active users that use the platform for
sharing, communicating and connecting (Chang et al., 2014).
2.5 Social media used for politics
Politics is a vast topic and in this democratic world opinion of each individual matters, as
they have opinions and viewpoints distinct from others. The political landscape has changed over
the past decades and social media has played a large role in changing the landscape. As
mentioned by Ceron et al., (2014), social media is used as a platform that allows political
campaigns and highlighting political agenda. The candidates and supporters of the respective
political party post their opinion and comments as well as criticize the individuals opposing the
campaign. Different political parties have pages on the social media platforms such as in
Facebook and Twitter. In these social media platforms, the political parties broadcast their
propaganda and requests according to their needs (Bonilla & Rosa, 2015).
The social media has also transformed the face of politics is due to the speed it offers
while spreading news to the followers. News relevant to the parties and poll results are shared by

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the political parties to its followers across the nation. This is an advantage that social media
offers to the political world, as previously the people had to wait for newspaper or TV news
shows for getting the latest and updated information about the political party (Fuchs, 2017).
Political polls are important part of each of the campaigns. The social media is used by the
political parties to reveal the poll results as well as live stream the entire process thereby,
allowing the followers and other people have the latest news. In addition to, social media
provides an opportunity for the normal population to communicate directly with the politicians.
Different politicians have pages on the social media through which the people communicate with
the politicians and are responded actively. These pages on the social media allow the people to
highlight the issues in their area, fetching support, advising and supporting the movements (Gil
De Zuniga, Molyneux & Zheng, 2014).
2.6 Influence of social media on conflict and contentious politics
After discussing the role social media in politics, it is time to shed light on the influence
of social media on conflicts and contentious politics. As commented by Xenos, Vromen and
Loader (2014), social media is a transparent platform that allow the users to share their opinion
freely and without any boundaries. As a result, conflicts over political issues on the community
pages are very common. As the political parties use the social media platform for campaigns, this
provides an opportunity for all the users across the world approve or disapprove the campaigns.
This support and criticism about particular campaigns due to difference in opinions leads to
conflicts. While some of the users support and encourage the campaigns others criticizes the
campaigns that leads to major conflicts.
One of the most important uses of social media in the field of politics is poll promotion
and results. As mentioned by Bode (2016), the following up of the poll results along with

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declaration of the results leads to conflicts and political controversies. This is due to the varied
poll results that highlight the winning and losing of political parties. The politicians, leaders,
supporters and protestors use the social media platform as a medium for communication with
their followers that has turned the virtual platform as the medium for political arguments and
controversies. Thus, it can be said that in spite of being an effective communication tool for the
politicians and leaders, social media is a major medium for political arguments and controversies
(Gibson, 2015).
2.7 Dealing with political conflicts over social media
As political conflicts are gaining popularity over the social media due to the varied
opinions of the supporters and protestors of the political parties and leaders, it is important to be
able to have plans to deal with the political conflicts over the social media. This is required
because the people supporting or opposing an figure out the identity of the individuals and can
cause harm due to the conflict (Reuter & Szakonyi, 2015). Out of the different social media
platforms, Facebook and Twitter are the most used social platform that has encountered political
conflicts. In order to deal with the increasing conflicts in Facebook, the platform have the feature
of hiding the individual comments. The “Hide” feature in Facebook provides an opportunity for
a user to hide individual comment of any post. As a result, the comment cannot be seen by all the
existing users but is only visible to the commenter and the supporters. This provides an
opportunity for tailoring the comments on the posts without blocking the other users or deleting
the comments (Sandoval-Almazan & Gil-Garcia, 2014).
Similar feature is also found in Twitter, as the social media application has “Mute”
option. The enabling of this option in Twitter helps the users to stop the conversations, posts and
comments. In addition to, this feature in Twitter also helps to select the keywords to appear in

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the feeds and mentions. However, the difference with Facebook is that muting the tweet will stop
the user to view the comment but will not remove the tweet or the account from Twitter. As a
result, other users can still have access to the comments (Yamamoto, Kushin & Dalisay, 2015).
2.8 Summary
Thus, in this chapter, it can be summarized that social media has come a long way since
its emergence and has become one of the most preferred medium used for both personal and
professional use. The social media platform is used for various purposes such as communication,
supporting a cause, voicing individual opinion regarding any political views. In spite of such
advantages, the social media platform influence conflicts and contentious politics. This is
because of the transparent nature of the social media platform and the support or criticism one an
individual is visible clearly to another user that might be offensive.

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Chapter 3: Proposed research methodology
3.0 Research philosophy
For this thesis, positivism research philosophy will be applied. This will help in using factual
knowledge regarding the expansion of social media over the years by analyzing the significance
of the virtual platform in communication and sharing. The use of positivism philosophy will help
in using making quantifiable observations on the conflicts based on the authenticity of the data.
The researcher will be able to consider the different social media platforms and its influence on
conflicts and contentious politics (Mackey & Gass, 2015). The use of pragmatism philosophy
will not be preferred as using both positivism and interpretivism philosophies will make the
thesis complex. On the other hand, the use of interpretivism philosophy will be not preferred as
this will fail to ensure authenticity to the thesis, as this philosophy lacks the use of factual
knowledge (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015).
3.1 Research approach
Deductive approach will be used for this thesis. The concept of deductive approach offers
the provision to make suitable observations based on the previously existing theories, concepts
and information. Deductive approach also ensures that the ultimate aim is to prove the set aim
and thesis statement (Lewis, 2015). Thus, deductive approach will be most suited for this thesis,
as this will offer provision to refer to already existing data and information about social media,
how it expanded over the years, how it turned as the most preferred medium of communication,
the platform to share opinions and viewpoints and the influence of social media on conflict and
contentious politics and make suitable observations. The use of deductive approach will be best

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suited because this will allow the researcher prove the thesis statement and transform general
information into specific information by referring it to the thesis (Vaioleti, 2016).
3.2 Research design
For this thesis descriptive design is most suited. The main characteristics of descriptive
design highlight its ability to both explore and explain the reason of the identified gap in the
study. As a result, it is possible to suggest ways of mitigating the identified gap (Flick, 2015).
Descriptive design is most suited for this research because this will help in exploring why social
media is becoming the platform for political conflicts when it is used as a medium or platform
for sharing opinions and viewpoints regarding a particular action over the platform. On the other
hand, application of descriptive design will also help in explaining the identified reasons that has
made social media as a war zone of politics (Smith, 2015). As exploratory and explanatory
designs have individual characteristics of exploring and explaining, applying individually will
result in complexity.
3.3 Research strategy
For this thesis, case study research strategy will be applied. Case study research strategy
highlights the ability of the researcher to refer to similar works and cases that can be used as a
valuable piece of information for developing knowledge and deeper understanding (Bresler &
Stake, 2017). Thus, the application of case study research strategy is best suited for this thesis, as
will allow referring to previous case studies that contains information about political conflicts in
the social media. As a result, the thesis paper will contain adequate information about how the
social media influence conflict and contentious politics as well as shedding light on the
probable reasons that is giving rise to such situations (Bauer, 2014). Other research strategies

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such as action research, survey and interview will not be applicable for this research, as this will
restrict gathering valuable and information regarding the thesis statement.
3.4 Data collection process
Secondary data collection process is the most suited for this thesis. The application of
secondary data collection process highlights the ability to refer to different secondary resources
such as articles, books, journals, official websites, online newspaper platforms and various other
internet facilities (Ledford & Gast, 2018). For this thesis, secondary data collection process is
most suited, as this offered the provision to consider the various social media platforms and the
political conflicts that take place there. In addition to, the use of secondary data collection
process will allow referring to the recent political conflicts over the social media such as
Facebook and Twitter and understand the reason for this (Reynolds et al., 2014).
3.5 Data analysis process
Thematic data analysis technique will be the most suited data analysis process for this
thesis. Thematic data analysis is the secondary qualitative data analysis technique that is
conducted by developing themes according to the thesis statement (Jamshed, 2014). Thus, the
use of thematic data analysis technique will be justified as this will help in developing specific
themes in accordance with the thesis statement, aim and objectives followed by analyzing it by
taking into account different secondary resources that includes information about how social
media is influencing conflicts and contentious politics and the probable reasons for this
(Humphries, 2017).

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3.6 Ethical considerations
For the successful completion of the thesis, abiding by the ethical considerations is of
utmost significance. As the thesis will be conducted using secondary data collection process,
collection of data from authentic secondary resources is a significant research ethics. Another
significant ethics for this thesis will be ensuring strict prohibition of data manipulation. The
information presented in the thesis has to be in its original form and cannot be manipulated.
Also, the information gathered for this thesis will have to be used only for academic purpose and
using the information for commercial purpose is strictly prohibited and against the ethics (Dang
& Pheng, 2015).
3.6 Accessibility issues
Taking into account the proposed methodologies, some accessibility issues will be
encountered. The implementation of secondary data collection technique will prevent the use of
statistical analysis for this thesis that will raise question on the reliability and validity of the data.
Developing the entire thesis based on the secondary data collection process will restrict in
considering the opinions about the active social media users on how social media is influencing
conflicts and contentious politics as well as the probable reasons that are forcing the social media
users for fighting over political issues over the social media.

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