What Forms of Political Participation Does Internet Use Predict?

Reykjavík.
The afternoon panel at ECPR 2011 starts with a paper by Bruce Bimber, whose focus is on the role of digital media in encouraging political participation in the US. Does digital media use lead to (or relate to) civic and political involvement? There appears to be a modest relationship, which is moderated by interest; interpretations vary about the substantive importance of that link, though. (Ultimately, effects of Internet use on engagement appear to be positive, but may not be substantial.)

Further, the association between the two may be growing with involvement over time – but that may not continue to be the case as the use of technologies such as Facebook becomes ubiquitous. Perhaps such time-based trends simply don’t make much sense any more.

Bruce’s study drew on U.S. national elections data for its longitudinal data (covering elections since since 1996), exploring the extent to which use of the Internet for political information predicted any form of political activity. In every year since 1996, using the Net for political information predicted political participation overall, but this is not the case for specific individual participative actions (voting, displaying a message of support, working on a campaign, attending an event, donating, or persuading others in their voting decisions).

While Internet use plays a modest role for political participation in general, then, what actions it will lead to is impossible to predict (and may depend much more directly on other factors, such as the political campaigns themselves). Ultimately, in other words, the context of technology use may be much more important than use itself…