Introduction to the Special Issue-Social Media and Inquiry into Political Change-Collaborative Approaches to Confirmatory and Exploratory Research in the Digital Age

Abstract

Combining data from a content analysis of leading newspapers, a random-sampled national survey (n = 1,306), and a semantic network analysis of Facebook postings, this study applies Network Agenda Setting and attribute-priming effects to examine how perceptions of risks, benefits, and trust in government regulation influenced the public s evaluation of the Presidential performance in the 2012 controversy over imports of American beef in Taiwan. The results show that only perceived risks to health directly affected the public`s evaluation of the President; other types of risks damaged the public`s trust in government regulation, which consequently harmed their evaluation of the President`s performance.