ABSTRACT
Analyzing the Citizenship Involvement Democracy survey on American citizens, this paper investigates categorical and demographic disparities between offline and online political participants and differences in significant predictors for political participation between offline and online modes. The study presents three main implications. First, people who do political activities online are not categorically disparate from those who do so offline. Second, the patterns of cross-group differences in activeness of political participation make distinctions between offline and online modes. Demographic distinctions reveal a tradeoff between a generational gap in online activity and a racial gap in offline activity, but a divide in political participation is still large between better-educated, affluent people and their counterparts. Third, the Internet plays a dual role to mobilize new participation by offline inactivists as well as to reinforce continuous participation by offline activists. Offline inactive participants do online political activities actively with frequent use of the Internet.
- Best, S. J., & Krueger, B. S. (2005). Analyzing the representativeness of Internet political participation. Political Behavior, 27(2), 183--216.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Bimber, B. (2000). The study of information technology and civic engagement. Political Communication, 17(4), 329--33.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Bimber, B. (2001). Information and political engagement in America: The search for effects of information technology at the individual level. Political Research Quarterly, 54(1), 53--67.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Boulianne, S. (2009). Does Internet use affect engagement? A meta-analysis of research. Political Communication, 26(2), 193--211.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Bowen, C. (1996). Modem Nations: The Handbook of Grassroots American Activism Online. New York: Random House. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Brants, K. (2005). Guest editor's introduction: The Internet and the public sphere. Political Communication, 22(2), 143--6.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Browning, G. (1996). Electronic Democracy: Using the Internet to Influence American Politics. Wilton, CT: Pemberton Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Chen, D.-Y., & Lee, C.-P. (2008). To reinforce or to mobilize?: Tracing the impact of internet use on civic engagement in Taiwan. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV 2008). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Dahlberg, L. (2001a). Computer-mediated communication and the public sphere: A critical analysis {Electronic Version}. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7(1) from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol7/issue1/dahlberg.html.Google Scholar
- Dahlberg, L. (2001b). Democracy via cyberspace: Mapping the rhetorics and practices of three prominent camps New Media & Society, 3(2), 157--77.Google Scholar
- Dahlberg, L. (2001c). Extending the public sphere through cyberspace: The case of Minnesota E-Democracy. First Monday, 6(3--5).Google Scholar
- Dahlgren, P. (2000). The Internet and the democratization of civic culture. Political Communication, 17(4), 335--40.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Delli Carpini, M. X. (2000). Gen.com: Youth, civic engagement, and the new information environment. Political Communication, 17(4), 341--9.Google ScholarCross Ref
- di Gennaro, C., & Dutton, W. (2006). The Internet and the public: Online and offline political participation in the United Kingdom. Parliamentary Affairs, 59(2), 299--313.Google ScholarCross Ref
- DiMaggio, P., & Hargittai, E. (2001). From the 'Digital Divide' to 'Digital Inequality': Studying Internet Use as Penetration Increases. Princeton, NJ: Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Available at http://www.princeton.edu/~artspol/workpap/WP15%20-%20DiMaggio%2BHargittai.pdf.Google Scholar
- DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Neuman, W. R., & Robinson, J. P. (2001). Social implications of the Internet. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 307--36.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. Social Text, 25/26, 56--80.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Gibson, R. K., Lusoli, W., & Ward, S. (2005). Online participation in the UK: Testing a contextualised model of Internet effects. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 7(4), 561--83.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Gimmler, A. (2001). Deliberative democracy, the public sphere and the internet. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 27(4), 21--39.Google Scholar
- Grönlund, Å. (2001). Democracy in an IT-framed society: Introduction. Communications of the ACM, 44(1), 22--6. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Grossman, L. K. (1995). The Electronic Republic. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
- Habermas, J. (1989). The Structural Transformations of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
- Hargittai, E. (2007a). The digital divide and what to do about it. In D. C. Jones (Ed.), New Economy Handbook. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
- Hargittai, E. (2007b). Whose space? Differences among users and non-users of social network sites {Electronic Version}. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1) from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/hargittai.html.Google Scholar
- Hargittai, E., & Walejko, G. (2008). The participation divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age. Information, Communication & Society, 11(2), 239--56.Google Scholar
- Howe, N., & Strauss, W. (1991). Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069. New York: Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
- Howe, N., & Strauss, W. (2000). Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
- Jankowski, N. W., & van Selm, M. (2000). The promise and practice of public debate in cyberspace. In K. Hacker & J. van Dijk (Eds.), Digital Democracy: Issues of Theory and Practice (pp. 149--65). London, U.K.: Sage.Google Scholar
- Jensen, M. J., Danziger, J. N., & Venkatesh, A. (2007). Civil society and cyber society: The role of the Internet in community associations and democratic politics. The Information Society, 23(1), 39--50. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jones, S., & Fox, S. (2009). Generations Online in 2009 {Electronic Version}. Retrieved Jul 29, 2009 from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Generations-Online-in-2009.aspx.Google Scholar
- Jones, S. G. (1997). The Internet and its social landscape. In S. G. Jones (Ed.), Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety (pp. 7--35). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kim, J.-Y. (2006). The impact of Internet use patterns on political engagement: A focus on online deliberation and virtual social capital. Information Polity: The International Journal of Government & Democracy in the Information Age, 11(1), 35--49. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kling, R. (1996). Hopes and horrors: Technological utopianism and anti-utopianism in narratives of computerization. In R. Kling (Ed.), Computerization and Controversy (pp. 40--58). Boston, MA: Academic Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Krueger, B. S. (2002). Assessing the potential of Internet political participation in the United States: A resource approach. American Politics Research, 30(5), 476--98.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Livingstone, S., Bober, M., & Helsper, E. J. (2004). Active participation or just more information? Young people's take up of opportunities to act and interact on the Internet. London, U.K.: LSE Research Online. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000396.Google Scholar
- Locke, T. (1999). Participation, inclusion, exclusion and netactivism: How the Internet invents new forms of democratic activity. In B. N. Hague & B. D. Loader (Eds.), Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision Making in the Information Age (pp. 211--21). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
- Long, J. S. (1997). Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
- Long, J. S. (2005). Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata (2nd ed.). College Station, TX: State Press.Google Scholar
- Lunat, Z. (2008). The Internet and the public sphere: Evidence from civil society in developing countries. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 35(3), 1--12.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Margolis, M., & Resnick, D. (2000). Politics as Usual: The Cyberspace "Revolution". Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Moore, R. K. (1999). Democracy and cyberspace. In B. N. Hague & B. D. Loader (Eds.), Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision Making in the Information Age (pp. 39--59). New York: Routledge. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C. J., & McNeal, R. S. (2008). Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C. J., & Stansbury, M. (2003). Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide. Washington, D.C.: George Washington University Press.Google Scholar
- Negroponte, N. (1998). Beyond digital. Wired, 6(12), 288.Google Scholar
- Norris, P. (2000). A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Post-Industrial Societies. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
- Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The virtual sphere: The Internet as a public sphere. New Media & Society, 4(1), 9--27.Google Scholar
- Pavlik, J. V. (1994). Citizen access, involvement, and freedom of expression in an electronic environment. In F. Williams & J. V. Pavlik (Eds.), The People's Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway (pp. 139--62). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
- Poor, N. (2005). Mechanisms of an online public sphere: The website Slashdot {Electronic Version}. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(2) from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/poor.html.Google Scholar
- Poster, M. (2001). Cyberdemocracy: The Internet and the public sphere. In D. Trend (Ed.), Reading Digital Culture (pp. 258--71). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Touchstone.Google Scholar
- Rash, W., Jr. (1997). Politics on the Nets: Wiring the Political Process. New York: W. H. Freeman. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
- Rheingold, H. (2001). The virtual community. In D. Trend (Ed.), Reading Digital Culture (pp. 272--80). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Salter, L. (2004). Structure and forms of use: A contribution to understanding the 'effects' of the Internet on deliberative democracy. Information, Communication & Society, 7(2), 185--206.Google Scholar
- Schneider, S. (1996). A case study of abortion conversation on the Internet. Social Science Computer Review, 14(4), 373--93.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Schneider, S. (1997). Expanding the public sphere though computer-mediated communication: Political discussion about abortion in a Usenet newsgroup. MIT, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- Shah, D. V., Kwak, N., & Holbert, R. (2001). 'Connecting' and 'disconnecting' with civic life: Patterns of Internet use and the production of social capital. Political Communication, 18(2), 141--62.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Shelley, M. C., Thrane, L. E., & Shulman, S. W. (2006). Lost in cyberspace: barriers to bridging the digital divide in e-politics. International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management, 4(3), 228--43.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Stromer-Galley, J. (2002). New voices in the public sphere: A comparative analysis of interpersonal and online political talk. Javnost-The Public, 9(2), 23--42.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Tolbert, C. J., Mossberger, K., & McNeal, R. S. (2002, Aug 28). Beyond the digital divide: Exploring attitudes about information technology, political participation, and electronic government. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA.Google Scholar
- Valovic, T. S. (2000). Digital Mythologies: The Hidden Complexities of the Internet. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2005). The Deepening Divide Inequality in the Information Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
- van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2006). Digital divide research, achievements and shortcomings. Poetics, 34(4--5), 221--35.Google Scholar
- Wilhelm, A. G. (1999). Virtual sounding boards: How deliberative is online political discussion? In B. N. Hague & B. D. Loader (Eds.), Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision Making in the Information Age (pp. 154--78). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
- Wilhelm, A. G. (2000). Democracy in the Digital Age: Challenges to Political Life in Cyberspace. New York: Routledge. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Williams, F., & Pavlik, J. V. (1994a). Epilogue. In F. Williams & J. V. Pavlik (Eds.), The People's Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway (pp. 211--24). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
- Williams, F., & Pavlik, J. V. (1994b). On prospects for citizens' information services. In F. Williams & J. V. Pavlik (Eds.), The People's Right to Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway (pp. 3--24). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Internet effects on political participation: an empirical study on the reinforcement vs. mobilization effect
Recommendations
New voices or old voices in political talk?
ICEGOV '10: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic GovernanceEmploying the national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, this study seeks to answer three research questions: 1) How does online casual communication affect the inclusiveness of the category of those who talk politics?; 2) How is the divide ...
Political participation via social media: a case study of deliberative quality in the public online budgeting process of Frankfurt/Main, Germany 2013
If social media are to reinforce sustainability of political decisions, their design has conceptually to take into account the implications of deliberative democracy, which stresses the active cooperation of virtually all citizens of a democracy for the ...
Political Participation and Engagement via Different Online and Offline Channels
This paper explores how political participation and engagement via social media may affect political participation and engagement offline and via other online channels, drawing from the exchange concept in marketing theory. Social media political ...
Comments