From spectators to gladiators: how family, media, and peers shape young adult digital activism among Turkish graduate students

This study examines the behavioral patterns of online public segments within the hierarchy of digital activism and analyzes the influence of political socialization agents on their engagement levels. Given that young adults are the primary actors in digital mobilization, the research employed a quantitative design, analyzing data from 394 young adult participants via a questionnaire. The segmentation of online publics was conducted using the summation method based on the perceptual antecedents of situational theories (Situational Theory of Publics and Situational Theory of Problem Solving). The findings reveal that involvement and constraint recognition significantly predict digital activism, whereas problem recognition does not show a statistically significant effect. Segment-based analysis identifies distinct behavioral groups-ranging from digital spectators to transitional publics and gladiators-with active publics exhibiting the highest levels of digital activism. Crucially, the study demonstrates that political socialization agents have divergent impacts across these segments: while mass media significantly informs the aware public, peers are the primary drivers for mobilizing the active public. These results offer a novel framework for understanding how interpersonal and mass communication channels differentially shape the transition from passive observation to active participation among digital native publics.