Views from Inside the Net: How Websites Affect Young Adults' Political Interest

Abstract

We use multiple methods to examine how individual websites affect political interest (i.e., citizens' willingness to pay attention to politics at the expense of other endeavors). Our model clarifies necessary conditions for a website to increase political interest. A survey then reveals age-related and site-specific interest changes that are consistent with the model's logic. Respondents of all ages report greater political interest after viewing sites that they rate as effective and efficient than they do after viewing other sites. Age-related interest effects occur because young and old disagree about which sites have these desired attributes. This work makes two contributions: our methods offer a template for understanding the influence of participatory appeals while our finding can help political entrepreneurs engage young adults more effectively.

Does Internet Use Affect Engagement? A Meta-Analysis of Research

“…The meta-data are insufficient to evaluate the plausibility of mediated or spurious effects, because existing research has not established the causal direction of Internet use and political interest. Some researchers assess whether use of online news Web sites predicts political interest (Lupia & Philpot, 2005;Mossberger et al, 2008), while others treat political interest as a predictor of Internet use (Best & Krueger, 2005;Bimber, 1998;Jennings & Zeitner, 2003;Johnson & Kaye, 2003;Kwak et al, 2004;Shah & Scheufele, 2006;Xenos & Moy, 2007). Most of these studies rely on contemporaneous measures, which cannot establish the causal direction.…”

“…In another example, Kwak, Poor, and Skoric (2006) report stronger effects of online news use on willingness to engage in international political activities, compared to participation in actual domestic political activities. The choice to exclude behavioral intentions results in excluding several studies, such as Kaye and Johnson (2002) and Lupia and Philpot (2005). However, this exclusion was necessary, because the measurement of political behavior (i.e., actual versus willingness) leads to different effects, which diminish the reliability of the average effect size.…”

Smartvote.lu: usage and impact of the first VAA in Luxembourg

“…Lastly, VAAs simplify the evaluative process -corresponding to the costs of relating data or factual analysis to specific goals -by providing the possibility to easily compare personal preferences on important issues with the ones of parties and candidates. The importance of these VAA characteristics in the context of the new media is confirmed by the experimental research undertaken by Lupia and Philpot (2005), which reveals that viewing a website is more likely to affect a citizen's political interest if (s)he perceives the site has certain attributes (e.g., is nonpartisan, offers unique content, and provides information efficiently). One of the main conclusions of these authors is that "viewer's perception of a site's effectiveness and efficiency is critical.…”

“…One of the main conclusions of these authors is that "viewer's perception of a site's effectiveness and efficiency is critical. Given the massive competition for a viewer's attention -from other websites and from life in general -viewers are more likely to attend to sites that they perceive as providing interesting information effectively and efficiently" (Lupia andPhilpot, 2005, p.1125). In sum, this analysis suggests that the informative value of the tool combined with its accessibility and user-friendliness should encourage not only a relevant number of voters to use it but also to be influenced by it.…”

Improving Newspapers’ Economic Prospects by Augmenting Their Contributions to Democracy

“…Tewksbury (2003) reveals how online news produced by local media can generate audiences-how online news may be complementing traditional newspaper (and television) formats rather than obliterating them. Lupia and Philpot (2005) show that under the right circumstances, despite the multitudinous nonpolitical distractions offered by the Internet, it is possible for online exposure to increase interest in the news among young persons (also see Peer 2007;Xenos and Moy 2007).…”