Communication behavior and protest participation in the refugee debate: The role of personal conversations, mass media and social media usage in citizen participation

Beginning in summer 2015, the increasing number of refugees coming to Europe and the question of how to handle this challenge has ignited a heated public debate in many European countries. In Germany, public discourse has become progressively intense, and on both sides of the controversy, citizens have attempted to actively influence and to shape the public debate through their actions. Against this background, this paper examines whether or not personal conversations, mass media and social media usage make it more likely for citizens to participate in the public debate on refugees. To do this, an online survey (N = 1,579) was conducted in February 2016, in the midst of the German refugee debate. The results show that different sources of information and forms of communication related to refugees may either foster or hinder people’s participation in a public demonstration against or in support of refugees