Social Media as an Agent of Radicalization in Pakistan: A Case Study of University Students

Abstract

As social media is growing to be the primary medium for political learning and social engagement these days, following study investigates the impact of social media on political radicalization tendencies of university students in Pakistan. The study used a quantitative cross-sectional design with 1,000 students and examined the usage of social media, exposure to radical content, political attitudes and tendencies of radicalization through reliability assessment, factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis and mediation analysis. The findings showed that there were strong relationships between all variables, and radical content exposure was found to be the most important factor for radicalization tendencies. Social media also had a significant mediating effect, indicating that the effect on the radicalization-related outcomes was not only mediated by political attitudes but also influenced by content exposure, interpretation, and engagement with the content.