Internet Use and Political Engagement : The Role of E-Campaigning as a Pathway to Political Participation

This paper uses original survey data from the 2010 UK General Election to examine two central questions about online and offline political partic ipation: what dimensions of participation in the online campaign can be identified; and whether any mobilization effects of e-campaigning activity can be detected in terms of increasing ind ividuals’ likelihood of participating after the election. Following our previous work, we confirm a measurement model of e-campaign activities and identify our three dimensions: e-inf ormation, e-party and e-expressive. We then show how these activities differentially predict su b equent non-electoral forms of participation. We distinguish between types of participation accor ding to classic distinctions in the participation literature and to the medium in which these activit ies ake place, i.e. online and offline. We use a panel study design that allows us to impose robust con rols on pre-existing levels of political engagement. Our results show that for the most part levels of pre-election engagement explain much of the post-election commitment to do so, and that online campaign involvement does not add significantly to this intention, regardless of the type of activity analysed. However we have found that use of the internet during the campaign to obtain information does appear to have a lasting effect on the likelihood of discussing poli tics online and on contacting a politician offline, even when prior propensity toward these forms of pa rticipation is controlled for. We have further observed a significant negative association between engagement in formal e-campaign activities (e-party) and a later proclivity to take part in a direct democracy initiative online (e-petition). Ou r findings are in line with a growing conclusion that the internet’s role in stimulating participation is likely to be more complex than a simple direct e ffect and support the claim for adopting a more nuanced approach to the analysis of the mobilizatio n effects. Introduction The literature on the internet and participation ha s expanded significantly over the past decade. Questions posed have centered largely on is sues of mobilization and whether use of digital communication tools is widening the pool of those engaging with political actors and processes, or simply deepening and reinf o ci g patterns of bias that already exist across groups in society. While the new infor mation and communication technologies have been tied by some scholars to the emergence of new types of elite challenging and direct forms of political activity (Stolle et al. 2005; Hay, 2007; Marien et al. 2010) much of the empirical investigation has f ocused on the link between internet use and engagement in the formal arena of representativ e politics (Krueger, 2002; Johnson and Kaye, 2003; Tolbert and McNeal, 2003; Gibson et al., 2005; Moy et al. 2005; Jensen et al., 2007; Mossberger et al. 2008; Quintelier an d Vissers, 2008; Gil de Zuniga et al, 2009; Pasek et al., 2010; Schlozman et al. 2010). T o date, although not uniformly positive, these studies have in general indicated i ncreasing support for positive, albeit small effects at the individual level, particularly for information-related uses of the new media (Boulianne, 2009). Part of the problem in studying this topic and a pr ima y reason we argue for its mixed and inconsequential findings has been the lac k of agreement on the subject of study and particularly the indicators used to asses s cause and effect. Analyses have either tended to look for effects of internet use measured in a binary manner on varying measures of offline participation or to examine pre dictors of an ad hoc range of online participation items such as emailing a politician, signing an online petition, or discussing politics with others online. As such it has been di fficult to detect a consistent and cumulative picture of mobilization effects. In this paper we develop our earlier work conducted in the UK 2010 General Election where we sp cified several underlying dimensions or latent constructs within e-participat ion, ranging from more passive engagement activities such as looking for online ne ws and information to undertaking more formal campaign activities for a political par ty (Gibson and Cantijoch, 2011). Using structural equation modelling we then examined the predictors of these types of online political behaviour and their impact on the likelih ood to vote (Cantijoch et al. 2011). The results were interesting in that they supported the view that information seeking is a significant stimulus to offline participation and t hat a newer social media-based ‘eexpressive’ participation centering on posting and sharing informal campaign content is emerging online. In this current study we seek to progress that work by utilizing a new data source – an online pre and post-election panel study of UK voters – that tests again for the existence of our three types of campaign e-particip ation and the impact of these online activities during the election on a range of politi cal activities other than voting, three months following the election. To do so, the paper is divided into three main sections. The first section below outlines in more detail the current status of research into internet and participation and particularly work in this are within the UK. We then set out specification of the dimensions of e-participation n the UK election campaign based on our prior work, and the relationships we expect to observe between these modes and subsequent post-election political activities. In t he final section of the paper we empirically examine our assumptions through a serie of models of participation that combine our e-participation types at time t with th eir covariates (also at time t) and their predicted impact on post-election political behavio urs (time t+1). The work contributes to the literature by first confirming that mobilizing effects can be attributed to online political activities. Second we demonstrate that th ese activities are multi-dimensional in that they cluster into distinct patterns of behavio ur with different implications in terms of subsequent non-election forms of political engageme nt. The Internet and Participation Studies of the relationship between internet use an d political engagement at the individual level have grown considerably over the past decade. Early work maintained at best an ambivalent stance on the question with a number of studies pointing to negligible or even negative effects as digital participation patterns replicated and worsened biases in offline engagement (Hill and Hughes 1998; Davis 1999; Wilhe lm, 2000; Bimber 1999, 2001; Norris 2001, 2003; Bonfadelli 2002; Scheufele and N isbet, 2002). Other authors, however, argued for more positive effects on voting rates and political interest in subsequent elections (Johnson and Kaye, 2003; Tolbe rt and McNeal, 2003) and subsequent empirical analyses of the relationship h ave generally drawn increasingly positive conclusions, although as Boulianne (2009) points out, those effects are small and findings have not proceeded in a monotonic and cumu lative fashion. Part of the reason for the more optimistic picture emerging has been due to the widening range of measures and modes of internet us which have permitted more sophisticated and subtle analyses in the detection of effects. Authors argued it was necessary to move beyond simple measures of use/acc ess to differentiate a range of online behaviours such as information seeking, recr eational use, and online discussion to better discern effects (Moy et al. 2005; Shah et al , 2005; Mossberger et al., 2008). Attention was also given to better specifying the d ependent variable of interest on the grounds that online participation constituted a new form of participation that was conceptually and empirically distinct from offline modes such as voting and contacting (Jensen et al, 2007) and should be examined in its own right (Krueger, 2002; Gibson et al., 2005; Anduiza et al., 2010). The analyses that have followed have moved to ident ify various sub-dimensions of online political activity and pointed to some in teresting conclusions. Firstly they have demonstrated how distinctions drawn in offline mode s of participation are replicated in the online environment. A number of studies using l atent variable analysis for example showed that various types of formal and informal ty pes of political engagement such as contacting, party and protest activity or petitionsigning could be identified online and that internet participation is a multi-dimensional phenomenon (Saglie and Vabo, 2009; Hirzalla and van Zoonen, 2010). In addition this wo rk has also distinguished a potentially new type of expressive political participation onli ne which involves the sharing and promoting of informal opinion and comment via blogs and social networks (Rojas and Puig-i-Abril, 2009; Gil de Zuniga et al, 2010). The se scholars have also sought to map the causal links between these various types of onl ine activity, specifying and testing ‘pathways to participation’ that link more passive nformation gathering to more active purposive on and offline modes. While extensive tests of these structural paths hav e not been conducted, the idea of information seeking acting as an initial ‘gatewa y’ or stimulus to more active types of online and offline engagement has gained a consider able consensus in the literature. In particular the work of Boulianne (2011) using a sim ultaneous equation modelling of 3wave panel data from the American National Election Study (2008–2009) provided convincing support for the idea that online news co nsumption stimulated levels of political interest and discussion among those with low prior interest. While not fully discounting the self-selection bias that accounts f or the significant impact of internet use on political engagement, her work provided convinci ng su