Political Participation Through Social Media: Comparison of Pakistani and Malaysian Youth

This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of online political participation in a cross cultural context by applying the concept of cognitive engagement theory. The relationship of access to political stuff on social media, political interest, and policy satisfaction with online political participation is studied in the context of Pakistan and Malaysia. The variable of political knowledge is used as a moderator in the study in order to reveal deeper insights. Data were collected from a sample of 504 students from COMSATS University Islamabad and University Utara Malaysia. In Pakistani context, political interest, policy satisfaction, and political knowledge show a positively significant result, whereas online incivility shows a negatively significant outcome. In the context of Malaysia, availability of political stuff online, political interest, policy satisfaction, and political knowledge shows a positively significant impact on online political participation. Political knowledge holds as a moderator in Malaysia but not in Pakistan. This paper has theoretical as well as the practical contribution in developing an understanding about political participation through social media in both Pakistan and Malaysia. Furthermore, cognitive engagement theory is also used on a rare basis, and hence, this paper adds to the generalization of the theory.