Media Use and Political Capital in Northern and Southern Taiwan

Abstract

This study explores the concept of political capital and examines the relationship between media use and political capital, especially as related to regional differences. Anational survey carried out in Taiwan shows that political capital can be seen in terms of five distinctive dimensions: political networking, political knowledge, political interest, political trust, and political participation. Time spent with media is of limited use in predicting political capital, while watching political news on television or reading it in newspapers is a positive predictor of political knowledge, political interest, opinion expression, and campaign participation. In terms of regional differences, we found that exposure to political news through television was more strongly correlated with political knowledge in southern Taiwan than in northern Taiwan. Exposure to political news on the Internet was correlated more strongly and positively with opinion expression in northern Taiwan than in southern Taiwan. But exposure to political news on the Internet was correlated more strongly and negatively with campaign participation in southern Taiwan than in northern Taiwan. We conclude that residents of northern Taiwan may accumulate political capital by exposure to news on the Internet, while residents of the south may accumulate political capital by exposure to political news on television.