Using social media to bypass state control – a study about social media’s effect on individuals’ trust in the ruling party in dominant party systems

Abstract: This paper will study the effect that consumption of news through social media has on individuals’ trust in the ruling party. The focus is African countries that are defined as having a dominant party system. The theory stipulates that consumption of social media should be an addition to models that investigate trust in parties in dominant party systems, and the hypothesis is that news consumption through social media has a negative effect on individuals’ trust in the ruling party. The study is based on survey data from Afrobarometer. Twelve countries within Afrobarometer’s data are identified as dominant party systems, and these are analysed using OLS regressions. The results indicate, in line with the hypothesis, that social media has a negative effect on individuals’ trust in the ruling party. However, further research is needed to establish the causal direction.