Political Conversations as Civic Engagement: Examining Patterns from Mobile Communication Logs in Japan

Abstract

Political conversation is regarded as an important form of political participation and civic engagement. Although significant differences have been found in the level of political conversation between countries, studies on political conversation in Japan are scarce. In this study, we investigated political conversation between people, considering the kinds of dyads in personal networks in Japan and how partners are selected. We pursued an exploratory analysis of the features of dyads in political conversation through mobile communication logs, comparing those in Japan and the US. For both countries, the results show that discussion of important topics and the number of voice calls in the afternoon was significant predictors of political conversations. In Japan, discussing with other people and family were more significant predictors than for the US. These results may have important implications for clarifying the extent to which political conversations take place, with whom, and how they occur as a by-product of other topics.

Appendix: Wording of Survey Items

1.1 Initial On-screen Survey

The initial on-screen survey measured the types of relationship with subjects using the following questions. The question for whether the subject was a family member was: “Is [Subject Name] a family member of yours?” The question for whether a work or school relationship existed was: “Do you know [Subject name] from work or school?” Occurrence of face-to-face conversations was captured by: “Do you talk to [Subject name] face-to-face during a typical day?” The question for trust in the subject was: “Do you trust [Subject name] a lot?” The question for homogeneity was: “Do you and [Subject name] generally share similar opinions?” The question for whether the subject lived within 1 h of travelling time from the respondent was: “Does [Subject name] live more than 1 h away from you?” The question for occurrence of discussions about important topics question was: “Do you discuss important topics with [Subject name]?” The respondent was asked whether he/she enjoyed socializing with the subject by: “Do you enjoy socializing with [Subject name]?” Whether the respondent and subject had many mutual friends was established by asking: “Do you have many mutual friends with [Subject name]?” Respondents responded “yes” or “no” to each question.

1.2 Regular On-screen Survey

The regular on-screen survey asked whether the most recent communication concerned the following topics: “work/school-related topics,” “small talk,” “adjustments to schedules such as messages about rendezvous,” “important topics,” “discussing other people (e.g. recent situation, or rumor),” and “hobby-related topics” using a multiple-choice item.

1.3 Presurvey

The presurvey measured demographics (sex, age, generalized trust), level of participation in organizations or groups, the extent of smartphone use in communications with other members of an formal organization or informal group, whether the smartphone was used for accessing social network services (SNS) , or for work-related purposes. Generalized trust was measured by the items “Most people are trustworthy,” “Most people are trustful of others,” and “Most people are basically good and kind.” The four-point scale for each item ranged from “agree” to “disagree” and the scores were aggregated into one scale (α: JP = 0.81, US = 0.81). To measure level of participation in formal organizations, respondents were asked about their participation in a “Neighborhood Community Association/Block Association,” “PTA,” “Agricultural Cooperative/Trade Body,” “Trade Union,” “Co-op/Consumer Group,” “Volunteer Group,” “Citizens’ Group/Civic Group,” “Religious Group,” “School Alumni Association,” “Political Support Group.” They responded on a three-point scale for each item: “I am an active member,” “I am just a member,” or “I am not a member.” Respondents’ responses were aggregated into one scale (α: JP = 0.72, US = 0.69). To measure the use of smartphones for communicating with other members of formal organizations, respondents responded to the multiple-choice item, “Please check all activities for which you use your smartphone for communicating with other members of your organization” and selected from “For telephone calls,” “To exchange emails or text messages ,” or “To follow on Twitter or communicate on Facebook .” The number of checked items was used in the analyses. The level of participation in informal groups and smartphone use for communicating with other members of informal groups was measured by the same items, with types of organizations replaced with “A private group of coworkers,” “A study or enrichment group,” and “A hobby or peer group” (α: JP = 0.67, US = 0.60 for level of participation in groups).