Conceptualizing and Measuring Participation in the Age of the Internet: Is Online Political Engagement Really Different to Offline?

While the study of e-participation has gained increasing attention within political science, our understanding of its underlying structure and relationship to offline participation is limited. This article addresses these gaps by focusing on three interrelated questions: (1) Is e-participation a mul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of politics 2013-07, Vol.75 (3), p.701-716
Main Authors: Gibson, Rachel, Cantijoch, Marta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blogs
Campaign literature
Citizen participation
Differentiation
E-government
Elections
Factor Analysis
Independence
Integration
Internet
Media
Participation
Political action
Political Behavior
Political behaviour
Political campaigns
Political culture
Political debate
Political integration
Political participation
Political parties
Political protests
Political Science
Replication
Social media
Social networks
Survey data
United Kingdom
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Summary:While the study of e-participation has gained increasing attention within political science, our understanding of its underlying structure and relationship to offline participation is limited. This article addresses these gaps by focusing on three interrelated questions: (1) Is e-participation a multidimensional phenomenon (differentiation hypothesis)? (2) If submodes exist, do they mirror existing modes of participation (replication hypothesis)? (3) If offline forms are replicated online, do they mix together (integration hypothesis) or operate in separate spheres (independence hypothesis)? We test our hypotheses through confirmatory factor analysis of original survey data from the U.K. General Election of 2010. The results show that distinct submodes of e-participation, comparable to those occurring offline, can be identified. Support for integration and independence varies according to the type of participation undertaken. Finally our results suggest that the online environment may be fostering a new social-media-based type of expressive political behavior.
ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1017/S0022381613000431