Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T18:12:02.474Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - On the Causal Nature of the Relationship between Internet Access and Political Engagement

Evidence from German Panel Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2012

Eva Anduiza
Affiliation:
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Michael James Jensen
Affiliation:
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Laia Jorba
Affiliation:
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Digital media are expected by many scholars to revolutionize democracy (for an overview, see Barber 1999; Ward and Vedel 2006). Although a pessimistic school of thought argues that the internet provides governments opportunities for subtle surveillance and control (Barber 1999; Krueger 2006), more optimistic analysts counter that the internet may strengthen civil societies, grassroots politics, and direct democracy (Coliagnese 2003; Hara and Estrada 2005). This second school of thought expects the internet, among other things, to increase the political involvement of citizens and their propensity to take political action (for a review, see the Introduction and Chapter 1).

The past fifteen years have seen dramatic changes in how citizens and policy makers communicate. Worldwide, the internet and online forums are playing an ever more central role in candidates and parties’ efforts to mobilize campaign participation (Norris 2003; Howard 2005), and in many countries, the internet is also replacing newspapers and television as a primary source of political information for an increasing number of groups in society, especially younger people (Norris 2002; Johnson and Kaye 2003; Tolbert and McNeal 2003; De Zúñiga, Puig-i-Abril, and Rojas 2009). Although the internet has changed the forms of political communication, many scholars doubt that it has also changed the prevalence of political engagement in the population at large. These skeptics argue that the internet is “preaching to the converted” (Norris 2003, 21); that is, politically mobilized citizens select themselves into using the internet, but access to the internet does not causally increase political engagement.

Type
Chapter
Information
Digital Media and Political Engagement Worldwide
A Comparative Study
, pp. 160 - 176
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×