Survey data to unveil the power of political crowdsourcing on social media

This paper describes a dataset collected from a survey carried out in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Pakistan, to understand the variables that impact political trust. The data was collected from September to November 2021 via an online survey on Google Forms, and 472 valid responses were obtained. Drawing on relevant literature, the survey instrument was designed to cover the respondents' opinions concerning partisanship, social media utilization, online social capital, voluntary online and offline political participation, and political trust. The dataset offers useful insights for institutional practitioners and policymakers working in the domains of democracy and political communication, facilitating policy formulation to bolster political trust through collaborative crowdsourcing.


Specifications Table
Data was acquired via a self-administered structured questionnaire.To enhance comprehension of the scale among respondents and overcome language barriers, the scale was translated from English into Urdu, and Bahasa Melayu, the native languages of Pakistan and Malaysia respectively.The questionnaire was distributed using Google Forms employing snowball sampling.It comprised two distinct sections: Section A contains demographic data, while Section B comprises the instruments employed.
Quantitative data was collected from participants' responses using a 5-point Likert scale.Over a three-month period (September-November 2021), 472 valid responses were received.The questionnaire and an Excel (.csv) data file can be accessed in the repository.

Value of the Data
• The data yields insights into the effects of social media activities as tools for enhancing voluntary participation among voters in the UK, Malaysia, and Pakistan, expanding on the Motivation-Incentive-Activation-Behavior (MIAB) model as political crowdsourcing model.• The data presented here can assist policymakers in devising efficient strategies to enhance political crowdsourcing on social media, fostering political trust among citizens.• Other scholars can use this dataset to compare developed and developing democratic countries, expanding upon statistical analysis using techniques such as multigroup analysis.

Background
This research aims to analyse data collected from voters who also engaged with social media, to evaluate their level of political trust.The uniqueness of this data lies in the theoretical foundation provided by MIAB model within the domain of political crowdsourcing.The data will also be used to bridge the gap in the existing literature concerning crowdsourced politics via social media communication.In addition, it holds significance as a mechanism for exploring partisanship, social media utilization, and online social capital under the mechanism of collaborative crowdsourcing to foster voluntary online and offline political participation, ultimately establishing political trust.

Data Description
Data was collected from the United Kingdom, Pakistan, and Malaysia.The UK is a northwestern European parliamentary-based constitutional monarchy.The Malaysian federation is a Southeast Asian parliamentary-based constitutional monarchy [ 1 ], and Pakistan is a South Asian republic based on parliamentary democracy [ 2 ].The democratic systems these three countries follow are rooted in the Westminster parliamentary model, which originated in Britain [ 3 ].We selected the UK, Malaysia, and Pakistan for two reasons.Firstly, Malaysia and Pakistan were British colonies and are now commonwealth members, and secondly, they all apply a Westminster-derived structure of government formation [ 1 , 4 ].Meanwhile variables of partisanship, social media utilization, online social capital, voluntary online and offline political participation, were incorporated to evaluate their influence on political trust, which is an essential political ingredient that ensure the inclusivity of the public policies proposed by political institutions [ 5 ].Theoretically, this article strengthens the findings of the recent research [ 6 , 7 ], drawing on the unique political and technological affordances of social media by exploring its contribution to the quality of democracy.
Data collection was accomplished by implementing a survey methodology, to obtain both demographic information and responses to close-ended questions.Within the specified time frame of September to November 2021, 472 participants actively engaged with the survey, utilizing the Google Form platform.The demographic characteristics of the respondents are illustrated in Table 1 .The respondents were asked to use a 5-point Likert scale to express their agreement with statements on social media utilization, online social capital, voluntary online and offline political participation, ranging from 1 to 5, where 1 denotes "Strongly Disagree" and 5 indicates "Strongly Agree'.In contrast, items linked with partisanship were assessed using a scale ranging from 1 to 5, where 1 represents "Weak" and 5 indicates "Extremely Strong".The raw data contains feedback from the respondents.

Experimental Design, Materials and Methods
Data was collected quantitatively applying the inclusion criteria, aged 18 years and above having voted in at least one general election, as the voting age in the target countries is 18 years.Corresponding with the principles of informed consent, potential participants were advised their participation was voluntary and that they were permitted to withdraw from the study at any time.Over a three-month period, 511 responses were received, of which 472 were validated.The online survey questionnaire comprised 46 measurement items for the six latent variables under investigation (see Table 2 ).The original version of the scale was in English.To develop a better understanding of the scale among respondents, it was translated from English into Urdu and Bahasa Melayu, the native languages of Pakistan and Malaysia respectively, to overcome the language barrier.A multilingual questionnaire ensures the understanding of respondents from different cultures with different education levels.This research instrument was translated and retranslated following the back-to-back translation procedure [ 8 ].The items were adapted from past literature [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].During the validation process, the items were reviewed by an expert panel and statistically tested by the pilot study.The police in my country can be trusted.

PLT3
The courts in my country can be trusted.PLT4 The judiciary system in my country can be trusted.

PLT5
The election commission of my country can be trusted.

PLT6
The local government of my country can be trusted.

PLT7
Politicians running the government in my country can be trusted.
We employed a snowball sampling technique to access participants for data collection purposes.This technique is recognized for its utility in accessing hard to reach populations, and for swiftly gathering data [ 8 ].It began by connecting personal contacts and groups on social media platforms that were most closely associated with the target population.Some individuals from the contact list were asked to share the questionnaire among their contacts, and to request that they do the same.To ensure the respondents met the inclusion criteria a filter question was added at the start stating, "Do you use social media, living in the UK, Malaysia or Pakistan, belong to the age group 18 years and above, and have experience voting in General elections?".Table 2 illustrates the measurement items, while Table 3 provides an assessment of validity and reliability.

Table 1
Descriptive statistics for the respondents.

Table 3
Convergent validity and reliability assessment.
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