Su, YanYanSuDr. LEE Ka Lai, DanielleDanielleDr. LEE Ka LaiBorah, PorismitaPorismitaBorah2026-01-162026-01-162021International Journal of Communication, 2021, vol. 15, pp. 277-299.1932-8036https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/15374/3319http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/26485Open accessIn Hong Kong, public discontent against the government has evolved into a series of civil disobedience campaigns in the past few years, and digital communication platforms served to channel public sentiments and shape collective action. Grounded in the communication mediation model, this study analyzed the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) data. Findings show thatpolitical social media expression was negatively associated with government evaluation. Moreover, internal politicalefficacy was negatively associated with government evaluation, and it also mediated the associationsbetween both political social media information seeking and expression, and government evaluation. External political efficacy was positively associated with government evaluation, whereas it only mediated the association between information seeking and government evaluation. Furthermore, democratic preference was found to be a significant moderator upon which the association between expression and government evaluation operated via internal political efficacy was contingent. Our findings provide insights into understandings of social movements.enGovernment EvaluationPolitical Social Media Information SeekingPolitical Social Media ExpressionInternal Political EfficacyExternal Political Efficacydemocratic preferencePeer Reviewed Journal Article