The Effects of Digital Media on Political Knowledge and Participation in Election Campaigns

Abstract

While the majority of previous research suggests there are positive relationships between digital media use and political participation and knowledge, most studies have relied on cross-sectional surveys and have thus not been able to firmly establish the chain of causality. Also, there is little research investigating use of different forms of digital media and their relative effects on political participation and knowledge. This study examines (a) the effects of digital media use on political participation and knowledge and (b) whether different forms of digital media use affect people differently. Drawing on two representative panel surveys, the study demonstrates that there are only weak effects of digital media use on political learning, but that the use of some digital media forms has appreciable effects on political participation.

Learning From News on Different Media Platforms: An Eye-Tracking Experiment

“…Some argued that the rise of digital media could lead to higher levels of knowledge, while others are not that sure about the positive implications (Dimitrova, Shehata, Strömbäck, & Nord, 2014;Mitchelstein & Boczkowski, 2010). In this article, we discuss findings provided by previous work and link this to theoretical perspectives on the consequences of online news consumption: the impact of (a) user control and (b) linearity of use.…”

Cognitive Engagement and Online Political Participation on Social Media among Youths in Malaysia: The Moderating role of Political Knowledge

“…This is because it will enables them to acquire greater political knowledge and interest, as a result increase their participation [7,11]. Hence, informational use of social media for political participation such as reading political news have a significant effect on political knowledge and participation [30]. As a result, citizens with more access to political information in form of news on new media are more likely to participate in politics because it increases their combined knowledge since they use the internet as a means of educating themselves about politics [31].…”

“…To test for respondent's political knowledge, the scale of [30] was adapted. Consequently, respondent for this study were asked 10 political knowledge questions.…”

“…Therefore, five response categories were provided including "Don't Know". The "Don't Know" option was included because [30] noted that it minimizes the chance of randomly guessing the correct answer. Consequently, the ten political knowledge items were summed up to form an index ranging from "0" for incorrect answers to "10" for all questions answered correctly.…”

Boomers versus Millennials: Online Media Influence on Media Performance and Candidate Evaluations

“…These online marketing efforts were not without merit, as a wealth of previous research shows that attention to online media can influence political attitudes and behaviors (e.g., [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]). Much of the latter research, however, examines new media usage among young adults or Millennials, focusing primarily on how media influences young adults' political participation and knowledge [2,11,12]. We build on the prior research by examining the influence of attention to online media on political attitudes among two different age cohorts, namely Baby Boomers versus Millennials.…”