The social dynamics of publics represents an essential view to understanding and theorizing publics, which complements the traditional psychological approach. Taking a personal network perspective, this study examines how publics’ issue capital accessible in issue discussion networks influence their communication with and substantive support for organizations in an issue context.
An online egocentric network survey was administered with a nationally representative sample (N = 1,146). The survey measured the structure and composition of participants’ issue discussion networks as well as participants’ communicative and substantive issue actions.
The survey results revealed that network size, issue discussion frequency and alters’ issue expertise stand as three strong indicators of issue capital consistently associated with almost all types of communicative and substantive actions. Network heterogeneity and density were only associated with certain types of issue actions.
This study represents a pioneering effort to examine issue publics within the context of their personal networks. The focus on issue discussion networks illuminates important social forces that shape publics’ issue actions, which moves beyond intra-personal psychological factors. Overall, the study leverages a personal network perspective to offer insights into the sociological dynamics of publics. Notably, the study introduces issue capital as a vital theoretical framework in interpreting the network effects on publics’ engagement with issues.
