How Personal Curation Shapes Political Engagement on Social Media? Examining The Politics of Personal Curation Model

Although individuals today have a wide range of media choices to engage in politics, recent investigations have revealed that many are increasingly avoiding news and disengaging from politics, especially in social media. From a user-centered perspective, few effective strategies on social media have been systematically examined to enhance political engagement. Established through the curated flows framework, this study proposes the Politics of Personal Curation (PPC) model, which offers a fresh perspective by examining how everyday mundane personal curation in social media (platform expansiveness, content heterogeneity, news attentiveness, and source belongingness curation) have significantly influences on political engagement. A preregistered study from a nationally representative panel in the United States ( N = 1,270) generally indicates that expansiveness, heterogeneity, and news attentiveness curation yield higher political engagement, whereas belongingness curation is linked to lower engagement. This study further supports that these media effects on political engagement are channeled through enhanced cognitive elaboration and moderated by cross-cutting discussion.