Assessing e-government capacity to increase voter participation: Evidence from the U.S.

One of the great promises of e-democracy is the potential it holds for increasing citizen participation. Much of the research related to this topic has focused on inputs, identifying the tools and technologies of e-democracy, or factors associated with adoption and/or diffusion of these technologies across units of governments or public organizations. By contrast there has been less research examining how these inputs translate into outcomes, or impacts that e-democracy has on changes in civic behavior or citizen engagement. Our study helps fill this knowledge gap by examining the impact that a specific set of information communication technologies (ICTs) have on a common form of civic engagement: voting. This research creates and tests two unique measures, the online election information index (OEII) and the e-registration service index (ERSI) to examine the extent to which local governments offer online information and utilities that help to educate voters and promote turnout. The index is tested on a sample of 396 county governments in the US to examine the extent to which governments' use of voting ICTs impacts voter participation, while accounting for other institutional and demographic factors that are known to shape voter turnout. We find that voter turnout is indeed higher in communities where local governments offer more voting ICTs, and the availability of these online resources may be particularly influential in boosting turnout in places where state policies serve to constrain or limit turnout.     

Which candidates do the public discuss online in an election campaign?: The use of social media by 2012 presidential candidates and its impact on candidate salience

The effects of new communication technologies on election campaigns, and the effectiveness of media-centered campaign strategies more broadly, remain ongoing subjects for debate in political science. This study provides some of the first empirical evidence about the potential impact of social media on the 2012 U.S. presidential elections, by testing the association between “candidate salience” and the candidates' level of engagement in online social media sphere. We define “candidate salience” as the extent to which candidates are discussed online by the public in an election campaign, and have selected the number of mentions presidential candidates receive on the social media site, Twitter, as means of quantifying their salience. This strategy allows us to examine whether social media, which is widely recognized as disruptive in the broader economic and social domains, has the potential to change the traditional dynamics of U.S. election campaigns. We find that while social media does substantially expand the possible modes and methods of election campaigning, high levels of social media activity on the part of presidential candidates have, as of yet, resulted in minimal effects on the amount of public attention they receive online.     

A meta-analysis of the effects of viewing U.S. presidential debates

Televised debates are now an expected component of the American presidential election campaign. A meta-analysis was used to cumulate the research on the effects of watching presidential debates. General campaign debates increase issue knowledge and issue salience (the number of issues a voter uses to evaluate candidates) and can change preference for candidates' issue stands. Debates can have an agenda-setting effect. Debates can alter perceptions of the candidates' personality, but they do not exert a significant effect on perceptions of the candidates' competence (leadership ability). Debates can affect vote preference. Primary debates increase issue knowledge, influence perceptions of candidates' character, and can alter voter preferences (the effect sizes for these variables are larger in primary than general debates). The effect sizes for the dependent variables with significant effects were heterogeneous (except for effects of debates other than the first on vote preference). No support was found for several possible moderator variables on issue knowledge, character perceptions, candidate competence, and vote preference: nature of subject pool (students, nonstudents), study design (pretest/posttest, viewers/nonviewers), number of days between debate and election, or data collection method (public opinion poll or experimenter data). The first debate in a series had a larger effect on vote preference than other debates, but was not a moderator for other dependent variables. The possibility that other moderator variables are at work cannot be rejected.     

美国总统选举与电视辩论

本文从美国总统电视辩论竞选的历史谈起 ,论述了电视辩论对美国总统竞选和电视传媒的重要性 ,指出电视辩论既有好的一面 ,也有显在的缺陷 ,为电视机构带来滚滚财源的同时 ,也凸现了其负面意义。文章最后还论述了面对网络的挑战 ,电视辩论形式必须创新的观点     

Becoming a Presidential Candidate: Social Media Following and Politician Identification

Political candidates increasingly use social media to tell their stories, share their thoughts and feelings and chronicle an unfolding election. We argue that the concept of identification—the process through which an audience member cognitively assumes the perspective of a media personality—can help illuminate how online campaigns can increase citizen support. This study employed a two-wave survey with a U.S. national sample conducted prior to the 2016 presidential election. Results of our analysis support our expectations that following Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on social media leads to increased identification with that candidate, which then affects candidate support.     

Differences in the Way Broadcast,Cable and Public TV Reporters Used Women and Non-White Sources to Cover the 2008 Presidential Race

TV evening news coverage of the 2008 presidential election by broadcast, cable, and public networks was predominately male and Caucasian in terms of reporters and sources. However, according to our content analysis of 888 campaign stories, viewers saw the least amount of source diversity if they watched the evening news on broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC. Cable networks FOX and CNN, and the PBS evening news had more female and non-White sources. This pattern also holds true for reporter use of nonpartisan sources. Findings on the 2008 election for the traditional broadcast networks are not consistent with those for the 2000 and 2004 elections, when female reporters at these networks had more female and nonpartisan sources in their election coverage than did their male colleagues. Reporters at PBS provided the greatest overall source diversity, regardless of their race or gender, compared to what was observed on broadcast and cable networks. Differences in the way reporters used women and non-White sources to cover the 2008 presidential race may be attributable to organizational factors.     

The Symbiosis of News Coverage and Aggregate Online Search Behavior: Obama,Rumors, and Presidential Politics

Using a relatively new approach, this study examines the agenda-setting effects of television and newspaper coverage of a prominent rumor from the 2008 presidential election: the rumor that Barack Obama was secretly Muslim. In doing so, we look at the relationship between online information-seeking behavior and mass media news coverage, expecting online behavior, such as search, to be a function of exposure to conventional news coverage rather than vice versa. Using Google search trends as a novel search behavior measure, we demonstrate that volume of news coverage positively predicts spikes in aggregate search.     

The 2008 Presidential Campaign: Political Cynicism in the Age of Facebook,MySpace, and YouTube

Considerable research over the years has been devoted to ascertaining the impact of media use on political cynicism. The impact of the Internet has been difficult to assess because it is not a single monolithic medium. For example, the 2008 presidential campaign was the first presidential campaign in which popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube were widely available to voters. Therefore, the campaign offered the first opportunity to explore the influence of these social media on political cynicism. In this study, we examined whether the use of such social media influenced political cynicism. We also considered the influence of user background characteristics (e.g., self-efficacy, locus of control, political orientation, demographics, and influence of family and friends), motives for using social media for political information, and users’ elaboration on political content. Several individual differences were stronger predictors of political cynicism than was social media use. In fact, social networking use was a negative predictor of political cynicism. Results supported uses and gratifications’ notions that the influence of social media on political cynicism is more attributable to user background and media-use differences than to sheer use of these popular sites.     

Measuring the effect of political alignment,platforms, and fake news consumption on voter concern for election processes

Fake news, propagated on social media platforms, is regularly used as a tool to influence political beliefs. In this paper, we investigate the impact of fake news on perceptions of election processes by drawing on the theory of motivated reasoning. We use survey data on partisan alignment, news consumption habits, and voting methods collected before and after the 2020 United States general election. Our pre-election results indicated that political alignment and the type of news a voter consumes influences their trust perceptions of election processes. These findings were replicated in the post-election results. We also found that Facebook users were more likely to consume fake and hyper-partisan news, whereas people who directly navigate to news websites consume primarily mainstream news sources. Implications for research and policy are discussed along with opportunities for future research on the impacts of fake news.     

Is the Confirmation Bias Bubble Larger Online? Pre-Election Confirmation Bias in Selective Exposure to Online versus Print Political Information

The Internet era has often been blamed for a predominant engagement with attitude-consistent information among citizens (labeled confirmation bias), which is thought to hurt political deliberation. This study offers the first rigorous evidence suggesting that online news fosters greater confirmation bias than traditional media. A 2 × 2 within-subjects experiment presented political articles, varying stance (conservative vs. liberal) and medium (online vs. print); selective exposure was logged or taped. Data were collected during the U.S. 2016 presidential primaries. As expected in the preelection context, partisans whose party was anticipated to lose the election (conservatives) did not exhibit confirmation bias. Liberals showed confirmation bias, but only online, suggesting print contexts reduce confirmation bias.     

The role of communication in the formation of an issue-based citizenry

Citizens can gain a better understanding of the important issues of a campaign and where candidates stand on those issues from three primary sources: direct candidate-to-citizen mass media messages (e.g., political advertisements, debates), news (e.g., newspapers, television news), or discussion with fellow citizens. The current study conducted a secondary analysis of 1996 American National Election Study (ANES) data to replicate Brians and Wattenberg's (1996) findings concerning the relative influence of political advertisements, television news use, and newspaper use on voter issue knowledge and salience in the 1992 United States presidential campaign. We also analyzed two additional communication information sources, general political discussion and debate viewing. The effects of political advertisement recall, television news viewing, and newspaper use replicated across election studies. General political discussion was found to affect both issue knowledge and salience, and when introduced into the regression analyses nullifies the predictive power of political advertisement recall for knowledge. Talk's influence on salience wanes in subsequent analyses. Viewing the first debate was a strong predictor of issue knowledge, but was not associated with issue salience. Advertisement recall maintained predictive power for issue salience even after taking into account the other four information sources, and watching the second debate also predicted salience. The combination of results presents evidence that candidate-to-citizen and citizen-to-citizen communication play unique roles in determining levels of issue knowledge and salience.     

Celebrity Endorsements and Their Potential to Motivate Young Voters

Although scholars have long indicated concern regarding disaffected young voters, the 2004 presidential election tallied record turnout among this age group. This study explored how and why celebrity-endorsed, get-out-the-vote campaigns may have helped to persuade young voters aged 18 to 24 to participate in an election campaign by examining campaign influence on individual decision-making factors. During the fall semester of 2004, a convenience sample of 305 college students from introductory general education classes completed surveys assessing their political efficacy, involvement, complacency, and apathy. Findings indicated that receptivity to celebrity spokespeople predicted lower levels of complacency and higher levels of self-efficacy. Complacency had independent effects on involvement and self-efficacy. The results therefore suggest that these campaigns can potentially influence positive change in political engagement of the younger citizenry.     

The good,the bad and the ugly: Three faces of social media usage by local governments

This article explores the determinants of local governments' use of social networking sites. It does so by analysing the relative impact of institutional, political and social determinants, while controlling for the impact of mayors' traits and social characteristics of municipalities on local governments levels of activity on Facebook. Empirically, this article presents a within-case analysis of Portuguese municipalities' activity on social media, aiming to shed light on the strategic use of social media by local governments. A coherent picture associated with politically pro-active local governments emerges from the results: higher levels of social media activity appear in municipalities with more competitive local elections and higher commitment to transparency. Moreover, findings suggest that local governments tend to be concerned with the low levels of voter turnout, potentially resorting to social media as a powerful tool to increase civic engagement and (offline) political participation. Levels of Facebook activity are significantly higher in larger and wealthier municipalities. The results indicate that Facebook official pages of municipalities are part of a larger arsenal of tools to promote political engagement and activity levels signal a propensity to involve citizens pro-actively.     

Network Adwatches: Policing the 1996 Primary and General Election Presidential Ads

This article presents a content analysis of 93 televised adwatches that appeared on ABC, NBC, and CBS network evening news programs during either the 1996 presidential primary (n = 40) or general election campaign (n = 53). Since the media's role in a democracy often is highlighted by its responsibility to provide citizens with information needed to make informed and rational decisions, this article analyzes political adwatches in regard to the social responsibility theory of the press. Findings indicate that CBS Evening News journalists did a better job at incorporating adwatch recommendations suggested by academicians to improve voter understanding about potentially misleading advertising con tent. However, content analysis of 298 primary and general election presidential candidate ads revealed that television journalists did not identify or discuss ethically suspect technological manipulations present in a large percentage of the 1996 spots.     

Media Preferences and Democracy: Refining the “Relative Entertainment Preference” Hypothesis

This article extends the work of research connecting media choice and relative preferences for entertainment to voter turnout. Markus Prior found that individuals who both preferred entertaining content to news and had either cable or Internet access were less likely to vote than were other citizens. As an update to his work, this article uses more recent Pew Research Center for the People and the Press surveys to test alternative measures of entertainment preferences and to update the Internet access findings for the broadband age. As a theoretical extension, this article looks at turnout differences among those with even finer content preferences. Specifically, people who prefer hard news are compared to those choosing societal welfare news (e.g., crime, community, health). The results indicate that there is value in considering Relative Societal Welfare News Preference in addition to—or even instead of—entertainment preferences alone.     

Intermedia Agenda Setting in Television,Advertising, and Blogs During the 2004 Election

This study examined whether the candidate-controlled public relations tools of political ads and candidate blogs were successful in influencing the issue and news agenda of the major television news networks during the 2004 presidential election. Data showed strong correlations between blogs and the media agenda. Advertisements did not correlate with the media agenda. Cross-lag analyses showed that the media set the candidates' agenda. The authors suggest intermedia agenda setting occurred as the media transferred their agenda to campaign blogs.     

Internet voting increases expatriate voter turnout

Cross-border migration has increased rapidly in recent decades. In response, most democracies have extended voting rights to their citizens abroad. Nevertheless, expatriate voter turnout tends to be low. This article investigates a frequently proposed remedy—internet voting—based on a case study of extended internet voting trials in eight Swiss cantons. For causal identification, I exploit an unexpected federal intervention that led to a temporary suspension of internet voting in four of the eight cantons, during which expatriates could vote only by mail. Using difference-in-differences estimation, I find that the temporary suspension of internet voting decreased turnout among registered expatriate voters by 4.1 to 6.4 percentage points. Placebo tests suggest that pre- and post-suspension trends in expatriate voter turnout were close to identical in treated and control cases. Overall, the results of this study suggest that internet voting represents an effective method to increase electoral participation among citizens abroad. Still, expatriate voter turnout remained well-below domestic turnout even with internet voting available, suggesting that high voting costs are not the only reason why citizens abroad tend to vote at lower rates.     

Social Media and Political Disengagement Among Young Adults: A Moderated Mediation Model of Cynicism,Efficacy, and Social Media Use on Apathy

To examine the role of social media use in the process of political disaffection, a web survey of young adults was conducted prior to the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Results showed that the positive relationship between cynicism and apathy was weaker for respondents who paid greater attention to social media for political information. Also, the indirect relationship between cynicism and apathy through external political efficacy was weaker for those who paid greater attention to social media for political information. We discuss implications for the role of social media in political disaffection.     

Emotion and political cognition: A test of bipolar,two-dimensional,and discrete models of emotion in predicting involvement and learning

This study assesses the usefulness of voters' emotions toward presidential candidates in predicting voter attitudes toward, involvement with, and learning of the candidates' statements at a debate. Three different models of the effects of emotions, including the bipolar model, Marcus and MacKuen's (1993) two-dimensional model, and a discrete emotions model were tested for their efficacy in predicting the responses of 81 participants who watched the 2000 Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University. Overall, the bipolar model in which positive and negative emotion terms fall along one continuum of affective valence was most consistent with the data. With regard to both presidential candidates, the more positive the emotion felt toward the candidate, the more positive the voters' attitudes were toward that candidate. Likewise, attitudes predicted greater involvement with the candidates, which subsequently predicted greater learning from the candidate at the debate.