How Is University Students' Engagement with Human Rights Issues on Social Media Related to Their Civic Engagement and Human Rights Behaviors and Attitudes?

Background:Social media is a powerful tool in campaigns for human rights and civic engagement. Though some forms of online activism (e.g. sharing a post or petition) are sometimes derided as “slacktivism”, these seemingly low-commitment, low effort activities can inspire activism in other ways, such as donation or protest. Social media use is associated with the development of positive attitudes about human rights or political issues. As the use of social media platforms among university students is high, understanding more about certain types of online behavior that may lead to increased academic and political engagement may have particular relevance to this population. This study aims to explore (1) the relationship between human rights attitudes and behaviors among social science university students and their use of social media to engage with human rights issues, and (2) characteristics of social media users who are more likely to learn about and promote human rights on social media platforms.

Methods:A probability sample of social science undergraduate and graduate students was randomly selected through the Registrar of a U.S. university in the Midwest (n=219). Utilizing cross-sectional research design, data were collected using an 80-item online survey, created using a tailored design method. The survey included the Human Rights Engagement Scale, the Civic Engagement Scale, an adapted version of the Human Rights Exposure in Social Work scale (which measures level of exposure that students have had to human rights issues and information, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), demographic questions, and researcher developed questions about social media human rights engagement and normative beliefs. A social media scale (α=.85) was created using survey items about social media use regarding human rights issues.

Linear regression was used to predict the relationship between pro-human rights behavior on social media and human rights exposure, human rights engagement, and civic engagement behaviors controlling for gender, level of study, and sexual orientation.

Results: Females, graduate students, and LGBTQ individuals were more likely to have higher social media scale scores. Controlling for gender and level of study, results indicate that heterosexuals engage in less human rights focused social media use. Human rights and civic engagement overall are positively related to social media use for human rights issues. Human rights exposure in social work was not significant. A linear regression model including the individual continuous variables (CES-B, HRE, and HRXSW) and gender, level of study, and sexual orientation accounted for 58.2% of the variance the respondents’ social media scale scores, with sexuality, HRE and CES-B scores having the largest effect.

Implications: These findings suggest that higher levels of human rights attitudes and behaviors as well as civic engagement are associated with higher levels of human rights related social media behavior. This is particularly relevant for social work educators who wish to encourage strong engagement with and advocacy for human rights issues among social work students. Incorporating social media in the classroom and sharing human rights issues on school social media profiles may increase human rights engagement and behavior both online and off.