Like, Share, and Comment #SCOTUS: Public Engagement with the U.S. Supreme Court on Facebook

Abstract

Chapter 1: Where’s SCOTUS?: An Exploration of News about the U.S. Supreme Court on Facebook Decades of scholarship reveal that the public learns about the U.S. Supreme Court through media and, particularly, through traditional media like newspapers and television. However, new media, such as Facebook, have not been explored as means for how people may learn about the Court. In this paper, I consider people’s interactions with the Court through Facebook. Specifically, I examine whether, and to what extent, users of this platform are exposed to the Court on their Facebook Feeds and whether this exposure influences users’ perceptions of the Court’s legitimacy. This is an important inquiry, as Facebook may play a role in shaping the public’s support for the Court and offer a new and unique way for the public to engage with, and learn about, the nation’s court of last resort. Chapter 2: Framing Support for the Court: The Role of Media Frames on Facebook News Feeds In today’s social media environment, Americans learn more and more about federal institutions on Facebook. This includes the U.S. Supreme Court, a branch of government that is typically not on the minds of citizens. In this chapter, I argue that Facebook posts about the Court’s decision-making process have the ability to shape people’s support for it. To make this argument, I expose individuals to mock Facebook Feeds to determine how exposure to various decision-making frames affect people’s support for the Court. This study has significant implications for the Court’s legitimacy moving forward, as Facebook is a powerful force that has the ability to shape public attitudes toward a federal institution. Chapter 3: Cue the Court Support: The Effects of Partisan News and Social Endorsement Cues on Facebook As Facebook users scroll through their Feeds, they rely on cues to make decisions about what information to process and how deeply to process it, which ultimately contributes to what they learn through the platform. There are two primary cues that users rely on when processing news on Facebook: source cues and social endorsement cues, such as likes, shares, and comments. In this chapter, I seek to answer two main research questions. First, are individuals more likely to engage with political Facebook posts about the U.S. Supreme Court when the news source of the information aligns with their partisanship and when the post contains social endorsements? Second, do news source and social endorsement cues influence the extent to which people process political information about the Court in the form of its legitimacy? To answer these questions, I expose individuals to mock Facebook posts about the Court, varying the news source and whether the posts contain social endorsements. Ultimately, this study provides a more detailed look at how cues unique to the Facebook environment influence (or do not influence) Court support.