In Kuwait, an increase in the use of social media by the Kuwait National Assembly (KNA) has allowed it members to reach out to the public and so advance their political agenda. This study examines social media influences on the decision making process; addresses the lack of academic research in relation to KNA members; and seeks to understand the extent to which public political engagement using social media might affect the outcome of their decision making. The proposed social media influence model (SMIM) was used to explore the relationships and relative importance of variables influencing legislator decision making in a social media environment.
The second decade of the twenty-first century saw a number of major issues emerging in Kuwait. A core mixed method design known as explanatory sequential was applied to multiple sets of data generated during KNA members' 14th (2013-2016) and 15th (2016-2018) terms. These data included Twitter messages (tweets), the KNA Information Center Parliamentary Information System legislation documents, and the news media articles. The sample was drawn from KNA membership, some of which used Twitter to comment on major events with specific hashtags and the Kuwaiti news media articles related to the same.
Study results confirm and support the proposed SMIM. They also suggest that a single person or a group of individuals (in this case, legislators) can be influenced and motivated to use social media for self-promotion and/or advancing their political agenda. Consequently, they can be used to devise ways for improving the use of social media by KNA members in support of legislative work, which in turn will provide citizens with access to real-time information and enhanced political interaction.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1404618 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Alfarhoud, Yousef T. |
| Contributors | Hawamdeh, Suliman, O'Connor, Brian Clark, Oyarce, Guillermo, Chang, Hsia-Ching, Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | x, 162 pages, Text |
| Coverage | Kuwait, 2013~/2018~ |
| Rights | Public, Alfarhoud, Yousef T., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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