Use of the Internet as a resource and a forum strongly influences participation in civic affairs, often more than traditional media and even face-to-face communication, according to a study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism professor.
The study by Dhavan Shah, published in the October edition of the journal Communication Research, analysed data from surveys conducted during and after the 2000 US presidential election and concluded that the Internet can rival the effects of newspapers in spurring citizens to action.
That is a significant finding, since Internet use tends to be more prevalent among young people - a wired generation often assumed to be disconnected from civic life, a press release from the university said.
"One hopeful piece of news from this is that young people are taking advantage of the Internet in a way that may be a sign of civic renewal," Shah said. "Everything points to the idea that this may be an important pathway to the involvement of young people in civic life."
Shah said his study illustrates how the Internet can be a potent tool not just for community organisers, but in promoting the long-term health of democracy itself.
"The Internet is something that tends to involve those who are least inclined to be public-spirited – if they use the Internet in certain ways – to become very public spirited and very civically engaged," he added.
The study's conclusions are also significant because they show the potential for the Internet to be a dynamic, interactive medium able to build citizen participation in public life. Although some scholars have criticised online communication as eroding social connections and encouraging people to withdraw instead of become engaged, Shah's study found that certain uses of the Internet can actually heighten civic participation.
"Although this analysis cannot vindicate the Internet as a cause of social withdrawal, it certainly suggests that when two of the most popular uses of the Internet – browsing and emailing – are used to gain information and express opinions about public affairs, they have substantial potential to affect the health of a civil society," the study found.
That potential has likely increased since the surveys were conducted, with the rise of online phenomena such as blogging, said Shah, who plans to expand on the study by analysing data from the 2004 elections – in conjunction with political advertising data developed by the Wisconsin Advertising Project.
The strong correlation between using the Internet as a tool of political expression and engagement in public life underscore its potential to enable civic participation without the traditional limitations of face-to-face communication, Shah said.
Additionally, the study concluded that television news – despite claims that the entire medium has a demobilising effect – has some positive, indirect effects on triggering civic participation.
The study also found that both online and offline information gathering culminates in civic participation. That tends to discount earlier theories that there are two distinct pathways to civic participation – one online and the other offline – and that political uses of the Internet dampen civic action and often lead to a dead end.
Shah said future research will need to probe how people use various media over time, instead of concentrating on how much they use them, when studying their effects on civic activism.
