Online Political Debate: Motivating Factors and Impact on Political Engagement

Abstract

Abstract. Online political debate is increasing in importance, both as a real world phenomenon and as an object of scientific study. We present a survey study exploring people's motivations for engaging in online political debate and how such debate may impact their general political engagement. The survey was conducted among 90 participants of an online environment for political debate hosted by one of the main Norwegian political parties. We found four motivational factors with relevance for participation in online political debate: engaging topic, want to contribute, frustration, and reciprocal learning. Sixtyfour per cent of the participants answered that the online environment for political debate could make them more politically engaged. These participants reported that such an increase in political engagement could be due to the online environment providing a sense of influence, access to political debate, a means for getting updated, a lowered threshold for participation, motivating local political engagement, and awareness concerning political events.

Connecting participation and e-participation: The use of ICT in the participatory initiatives of Brno

“…As shown in the theoretical discussions above, the importance of motivational factors was also confirmed by former research (e.g. Følstad and Lüders, 2013). More importantly, the participatory budgeting project was leveraged by e-participation tools as it was perceived as more 'natural', especially since it is not as abstract and therefore it seems that citizens are more motivated to participate.…”

“…They referred to the lack of demand of public officials and citizens (although the latter could not be fully judged by their research because it focused on the perceptions of administrators, not citizens). Furthermore, Følstad and Lüders (2013), who concentrated on motivating factors and their impact on political engagement in Norway, suggested that four motivational factors with relevance to participation in online political debate were of importance: engaging topics, desire to contribute, frustration and reciprocal learning. In their research, the majority of participants answered that the online environment for political debate could make them more politically engaged.…”

E-Democracy: Conceptual Foundations and Recent Trends

“…However, the design of the website can be an important factor in mobilising citizens (Zheng and Schachter 2016), design of online spaces having an impact on the political participation and deliberation of citizens (Steibel and Estevez 2015). According to Følstad and Lüders (2013), a survey among 90 participants in Norway resulted in 64% stating an online environment for political purposes would result in higher political engagement on their part, fostered by a feeling of having influence, having access to political debate, being regularly updated on events, raising awareness and motivating engagement in the local political sphere. In order for citizens to engage in political debate online, there must be an engaging topic, a certain will to contribute, frustration with a situation and reciprocal learning (Følstad and Lüders 2013).…”

“…According to Følstad and Lüders (2013), a survey among 90 participants in Norway resulted in 64% stating an online environment for political purposes would result in higher political engagement on their part, fostered by a feeling of having influence, having access to political debate, being regularly updated on events, raising awareness and motivating engagement in the local political sphere. In order for citizens to engage in political debate online, there must be an engaging topic, a certain will to contribute, frustration with a situation and reciprocal learning (Følstad and Lüders 2013). Party websites must offer high-quality information and a space for user interactions in which differing views are tolerated (Følstad et al 2014).…”

The Role of a Political Party Website: Lessons Learnt from the User Perspective

“…A large number of studies have been conducted on political party behavior online [5], including analyses of the features of political party websites, traffic on such websites, and the correspondence between what is offered and how these websites are being used [2,3,4], [6]. Few studies go in depth on how political party websites are experienced by its users [7]; findings of relevance to this topic typically are based on large scale questionnaire studies [8,9]. This lack of in-depth studies on users' experi-ences is noteworthy, given that online political communication is hypothesized to improve citizens' political engagement [6] and participation [3].…”