This study assesses differences in use ofFor some time, empirical research on the uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) focused on issues of access, digital inequalities, and descriptions of how they were used. More recently, important efforts were undertaken to explore possible relations between specific uses of new communication technologies and individual and societal level consequences. Currently, research is emphasizing more complex models that explore the potential of ICTs to foster supplementary or alternative pathways to democratic political engagement and societal integration.Robust research traditions within the fields of communication , political science (Delli-Carpini & Keeter, 1996;Huckfeldt, Beck, Dalton, & Levine, 1995), and sociology (Gamson, 1992) have consistently linked information and information seeking/processing behaviors with different forms of civic and political engagement. While there have been some disagreements regarding the boundaries and causal ordering of information seeking and participatory behaviors, current understanding privileges theoretical models in which exposure to
Research has shown consistently that news consumption both online and offline is related positively to interpersonal discussion, political involvement and political engagement. However, little consideration has been given to the role that new sources of information may exert on different forms of political engagement. Based on secondary analysis of data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, this article contrasts the influence of traditional sources of information online with that of emergent sources (blogs) in predicting further political discussion, campaigning and participation in both the online and the offline domains. The results show that the use of traditional sources online is related positively to different types of political engagement, both online and offline. Most interestingly, the article finds that blog use emerges as an equally important predictor of political engagement in the online domain. Its analyses provide support for the contention that asserts the democratic potential of the internet.
A long tradition of research focuses on conversation as a key catalyst for community integration and a focal mediator of media influence on participation. Changes in media systems, political environments, and electoral campaigning demand that these influences, and the communication mediation model, be revised to account for the growing convergence of media and conversation, heightened partisan polarization, and deepening social contentiousness in media politics. We propose a revised communication mediation model that continues to emphasize the centrality of face‐to‐face and online talk in democratic life, while considering how mediational and self‐reflective processes that encourage civic engagement and campaign participation might also erode institutional legitimacy, foster distrust and partisan divergence, disrupting democratic functioning as a consequence of a new communication ecology.
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