Online Social Ties and Political Engagement

While positive effects of social interaction on political participation have been widely confirmed, questions have been raised about whether the relationship holds in the online environment. This article uses data from the 2007 Australian Election Study to address this debate by testing whether grea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of information technology & politics 2013-01, Vol.10 (1), p.21-34
Main Authors: Gibson, Rachel K., McAllister, Ian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Australia
Bonding
Bridging
Citizen participation
Construction
digital
Digital technology
E-government
Elections
Information systems
Information technology
Interaction
Internet
Networks
On-line systems
Online
Participation
Political aspects
Political Participation
Politics
Social aspects
Social capital
Social Contact
Social Interaction
Social Networks
Social relations
Web
Web sites
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Summary:While positive effects of social interaction on political participation have been widely confirmed, questions have been raised about whether the relationship holds in the online environment. This article uses data from the 2007 Australian Election Study to address this debate by testing whether greater online social interaction predicts increased political engagement, and whether this differs for interactions within homogenous (bonding) versus heterogeneous (bridging) networks. The findings show that bonding, and not bridging, online social contact predicts offline participation, suggesting that online interactions that do not build on existing offline networks are not as effective in mobilizing "real world" participation.
ISSN:1933-1681
1933-169X
DOI:10.1080/19331681.2012.712461