Week of 11/11 - 11/13

Information, Communication & Society

The Internet and new modes of political participation: online versus offline participation
- Traditional political participation repertoires are replaced by new forms such as 'lifestyle' politics, political consumerism, Internet activism, etc
- Some argue that internet activism is exaggerated, superficial, unimportant, and potentially dangerous
- Steps to determine online engagement:
1. measure and distinguish different types of political participation
2. understand how online and offline participation compare with and relate to each other -- do they draw in new people? or the same people? same sources as offline?
3. address the concern of declining participation in electoral politics and traditional offline activism

Online Political Participation
- Some argue that online participation might or should simply model political acts in the offline world
- There have been past marches and rallies created in the virtual world that have been successful
- Can connect with political figures online and also raise funds for figures online as well
- Some that do not exist offline: use of humor in political postings; the visible support for social/political organizations, candidates, and specific social/political goals; wide-reaching mobilization campaigns; or politically motivated hacking 
- politically active people (online) tend to be more active in general on sites such as Facebook
- Concern is that people aren't really changing the world with a click of a button
- internet drastically lowers information cost through hyperlinks and the ability of audience members to customize to their likes - give equality of opportunity for political participation

Data
- Taken from an English-speaking university in Canada
- Response rate at low of 8% 
- 61% women and 38% men 
- 15 min survey asked about their offline and online political activism
- Facebook is very popular >50% 
- Collecting signtures or signing e-petitions and donating money were the most popular (48% and 35%)
- Still, offline protesting is more popular - people find online marches etc to be less satisfying and "real" and doesn't attract as much attention as they would offline

Results
- Facebook participants are not very different from non-participants, but are more likely to use the Internet for news consumption about current affairs and politics 
- FB users are prone to spend in general less time online compared to non-active students 
- These students tend to be more interested in politics but don't have higher knowledge necessarily than non-participants 
- in short, there are no large significant differences but could become less valuable online