The Spiral of Silence in Virtual Space: Examining How Expert Participation, Digital Media Form, and Opinion Congruency Relate to Opinion Expression

Identifier

etd-05232015-003120

Author

Yiwei Zhang, Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical CollegeFollow

Degree

Master of Mass Communication (MMC)

Department

Mass Communication

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This study tested the spiral of silence in both Social Networking Sites (SNS) and online discussion forums. It argued that online expert participation may influence people's willingness to take part in an online discussion. A two (opinion climate) by two (expert participation) experiment was designed to examine how expert participation influenced the relationship between people’s willingness to speak out and opinion climate with the controversial topic: abortion. In this study, the spiral of silence effect was only found when experts were present in the discussion.

Date

2015

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Recommended Citation

Zhang, Yiwei, "The Spiral of Silence in Virtual Space: Examining How Expert Participation, Digital Media Form, and Opinion Congruency Relate to Opinion Expression" (2015). LSU Master's Theses. 4175.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/4175

Committee Chair

Windels, Kasey

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.4175