Social media has been evidenced as a meaningful platform in terms of informing citizens and promoting democracy. The present research adds to the existing literature by examining various predictors of social media political discussion. Special attention was paid to social media news use, social media network, trust, as well as various control variables in a nondemocratic state, China. Results indicated a unique role of social media news dissemination in predicting social media political discussion. Moreover, news friending, the number of followers and followees, along with political interest predicted news dissemination. In addition, only the number of followees predicted news reception. Theoretical implications are discussed in detail.
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