Nowadays, many scholars have researched the use of social media and how it influence citizen participation such as civic participation and political participation. The rise of social media applications such as Facebook has enhanced organizations to promote and amplify their movement or campaign. Recently, in Singapore the request to repeal Penal Code 377A which criminalise consensual coitus has spark an online movement which ended up to an annual offline rally that promotes the freedom to love and also create awareness that LGBT is not a taboo issue but a personal identity which need to be embrace, and legalize in order to attain the same rights as their heterosexual counterpart. This research aims to examine the use of social network sites (SNS) for news in fostering or influencing civic engagement among Pink Dot SG participants.
This research used its primary theories on civic engagement and political participation from some pioneers on participation such as Verba, Schlozman, and Brady, and mostly refers to Gil de Zúñiga et al. (2012) research on civic engagement as a yardstick. Partial Least Square Path Modelling is used to examine the predictive relationship between each variables and the postulated theoretical model.
In this research findings, a positive result proves that civic participation, online political participation, and offline political participation is related as the three integral elements of civic engagement but SNS use for news does not directly influence those three elements.
Keywords: Social Media, Social Network Sites, Facebook, Civic Participation, Political Participation, Civic Engagement