What changes online participation in politics?

A central question within literature is whether the Internet by and large strengthens or weakens political and civic engagement beyond the Net (de Zúñiga et al., 2012; Wellman, Quan-Haase, Witte, & Hampton, 2001). Two opposing theories have dominated this debate for some time: On the one hand the cyber-activists assumed that the Internet has a positive influence. Previously marginalised or politically disinterested sections of the population now have the new opportunity to express themselves and become involved within a purposeful framework. In consequence, there was talk of a „mobilisation theory“ (cf. Best & Krueger, 2005; Oser et al., 2012; Park & Perry, 2008). The opposing perception – sometimes known as the „crowding out hypothesis“ – predicted that the Internet would be more likely to drain civic participation and engagement. Instead of throwing their weight behind communal and political goals, the users would subsist in a lonely environment in front of their screens (Putnam, 1995).

Social networks facilitate alternative forms of political participation

Example 3: Social networks such as Facebook facilitate alternative forms of political participation, for instance the organisation of protest marches or consumer boycotts.


Ultimately, though, a third perspective took hold in the middle ground of this debate: The „normalisation theory“ asserts that the Internet has barely any impact on the prevailing participation ratios, and that in the end everything will remain as it is (cf. Carrara, 2012; Park & Perry, 2008 for an overview). This view was expressed in a slightly modified form in the „amplification theory“ (Norris, 2000). This proposed that the politically interested and committed would benefit most from the options for participation available on the Internet – in other words they would be used primarily by the well-educated elites, seeking in this way to heighten their involvement (di Gennaro & Dutton, 2006; Gibson, Lusoli, & Ward, 2005). In contrast, those without involvement and the disinterested would barely use these options at all. This would then widen the existing divide in political participation.

Empirical studies identified a positive effect of Internet use and participation on political engagement beyond the Internet. This effect was identified across a range of different cultural contexts (Hwang et al., 2006; Kwak et al., 2006; Wang, 2007). Political participation on the Net may also reveal positive ramifications for civic engagement (Stern & Dillman, 2006). A meta-analysis by Boulianne (2009) examined 38 studies that focussed on the influence of the Internet on political and civic engagement. Although the meta-analysis discovered barely any negative effects, it failed equally to discover any clear and distinct, positive overall effect. This supports the normalisation theory while seeming to refute the crowding out hypothesis. A literary overview by Anduiza et al. (2009) also came to the conclusion that although widespread Internet use has a positive influence on online forms of political participation, its effects on offline participation are negligible.

Qualitative or case studies also fail to identify any negative repercussions of the Internet on political participation; instead – quite the contrary – they generally identify positive effects (Collin, 2008; Davis, 2010). They focus increasingly on more recent forms of political participation and hence exceed the scope of most quantitative studies that most commonly focus on traditional forms of participation on the Internet and beyond. Studies that specifically analyse social media come to similar conclusions: Broadly speaking, they identify positive effects of social media use on both political participation and civic engagement (Conroy et al., 2012; de Zúñiga et al., 2012).

The necessity to distinguish between different forms of (political) participation is an important insight found in research on online political engagement and the effects of the Internet on political participation. Although there may be a meagre or indeed no correlation between Internet use and traditional forms of engagement and participation (such as strikes, protests or elections), it can nevertheless foster more recent forms that usually relate to very specific topics or challenges (Davies et al., 2012). Here, Livingstone (2008) sees a central insight in research conducted to date. She calls for a broader understanding of what participation means, moving beyond traditional forms such as voting and elections to integrate new phenomena such as politically-motivated consumerism. Hence, it is fair to expect that new forms of organisation and coordination within stakeholder groups, also forms of activism beyond the scope of established channels and institutions such as parties and associations, will feel the keenest influence on political participation due to use of the Internet (Dahlgren, 2011).

Besides distinguishing between various forms of participation, it is also important to differentiate within Internet use itself (Moy et al., 2005; Polat, 2005; Xenos & Moy, 2007). Whereas early studies tended to consider Internet use as an undifferentiated factor, more recent analyses have increasingly started to apply classifications to types of, and motives for, Internet use. Numerous authors call for a differentiated appreciation of Internet use (Dutta-Bergman, 2006; George, 2005; Hampton et al., 2011). Benchmarks applied without differentiation to Internet use and access to technology are unable to consider the variety of influences found in the different forms of use. For instance, reading online newspapers or becoming involved in online communities stimulates political engagement to a greater extent than perusing entertaining videos on YouTube (de Zúñiga et al., 2012; Kenski & Stroud, 2006; Kim, 2007; Moy et al., 2005). Bakker & de Vreese (2011) ascertained that use of the Internet for informative purposes such as reading news has a positive effect on political participation online and offline, while the consumption of entertainment offered on the Net has a more negative repercussion (cf. de Zúñiga et al., 2012; Holt et al., 2013; Wang, 2007).

The Net is viewed primarily as an extension of traditional forms within political participation

Example 4: Sometimes the Net is viewed primarily as an extension of traditional forms within political participation, for instance volunteer work during an election campaign – here the Barack Obama campaign in 2008.

Moy et al. (2005) distinguish between seven forms of Internet use: seeking information, email, domestic use, political use, social use, consumerist use and community-based use. Of these forms, only seeking information, email, political use and community-based use impact positively on civic engagement. Active and social forms of Web use appear to foster civic engagement and political participation. Membership in politically-oriented Facebook groups has proven a distinct predictor for political participation outside of the Internet, also (Conroy et al., 2012). Besides an overly generalised consideration, it has proven equally problematic to analyse Internet use in an isolated form: Consumption of different media reveals a mutuality of influence. It is also known that the consumption of newspapers, for instance, is strongly associated with civic engagement and political participation (de Zúñiga et al., 2009; Krueger, 2002; Moy et al., 2005; Sylvester & McGlynn, 2010). Hence it is also relevant to ask how Internet use affects the consumption of other media.