Thesis
Exploring networked dynamics of police-community cooperation : the role of social media affordances, digital efficacy, surveillance, and perception of the police forces in the UK
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2026
- Thesis identifier
- T18039
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202160499
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Social media has become a prominent environment in which police–community relations are experienced and interpreted. This transformation calls for a reconsideration of public’s intention to cooperate with the police. Existing research has established that trust, legitimacy, procedural justice, and police effectiveness help explain intention to cooperate with the police. However, less is known about how this intention is affected by social media and by digital control mechanisms. This thesis brings perceptions of policing and perceived digital control mechanisms on social media into a single analytical framework to explain intention to cooperate with the police. It also conceptualises and empirically tests digital efficacy. To explain these relationships, the study draws on Foucault’s concept of governmentality. The study is based on an online survey of 440 participants in the United Kingdom. Two structural models were tested using structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that procedural justice and trust in the police have positive direct effects on intention to cooperate with the police. The direct effect of perceived police effectiveness on intention to cooperate with the police is not significant. Self-censorship on social media positively mediates the effects of procedural justice and trust in the police on intention to cooperate with the police, but negatively mediates the effect of perceived police effectiveness on this outcome. In the first model, none of the hypothesised mediating effects of perceived social media affordances were supported; however, perceived interaction affordance has a significant direct effect on intention to cooperate with the police. In the second model, perceived control on social media positively affects both intention to cooperate with the police and digital efficacy. Perceived surveillance on social media has no direct effect on cooperation intention, but has an indirect effect through perceived interaction affordance and a positive direct effect on digital efficacy. Overall, this thesis contributes to research on cooperation with the police by situating it within the social media context, while also advancing the concept of digital efficacy.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Higgins, Michael, 1967-
- Rathnayake, Chamil
- Resource Type
- DOI
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PDF of thesis T18039 | 2026-06-02 | Public | Download |