“…Other data sources also contradict the negative effect documented by Gibson et al (2000). These studies find that online political discussion has a significant, positive effect on offline political participation (Hwang, Schmierbach, Paek, Zuniga, & Shah, 2006;Mossberger et al, 2008;Nah, Veenstra, & Shah, 2006;Price, Goldthwaite, Cappella, & Romantan, 2002;Shah et al, 2005;Shah, Cho, et al, 2007). Gibson et al (2000) also include listservs in the online socializing index, but this indicator likely does not explain the negative effects.…”