Expressive Versus Consumptive Blog Use: Implications for Interpersonal Discussion and Political Participation (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Communication , 2013
Research has established the positive relationship between news consumption, interpersonal discussion, and political participation. New insights within this framework have tested the positive effect of blog use in the political domain. Based on national survey data, this study proposes novel advances by distinguishing between a less involved blog use (consumptive), such as reading entries and comments, and a more active blog use (expressive), such as posting comments on other people's blogs and on one's own blog. Results indicate expressive blog use is directly related to political participation, online and offline, and interpersonal reasoning processes, including reasoning and disagreement, whereas consumptive blog use is not. Furthermore, the relationship between expressive blog use and participation is mediated by exposure to weak ties.
Consumptive versus Expressive Blog Use
International Journal of Communication, 2013
Research has established the positive relationship between news consumption, interpersonal discussion, and political participation. New insights within this framework have tested the positive effect of blog use in the political domain. Based on national survey data, this study proposes novel advances by distinguishing between a less involved blog use (consumptive), such as reading entries and comments, and a more active blog use (expressive), such as posting comments on other people's blogs and on one's own blog. Results indicate expressive blog use is directly related to political participation, online and offline, and interpersonal reasoning processes, including reasoning and disagreement, whereas consumptive blog use is not. Furthermore, the relationship between expressive blog use and participation is mediated by exposure to weak ties.
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Though political bloggers are often caricatured in the media as lone voices, their blogs provide virtual spaces for their readers to discuss politics and organize political action. The new expressive and participatory opportunities made available by the Internet in general and blogs in particular will only become more important to the political process as the number of people making use of them increases. At the same time that blogs have become an important part of the political landscape, ideological media in general have seen a rise in prominence. In this paper, we seek to examine the relationship between the ideological homogeneity of one's blog consumption and the tendencies to participate in and discuss politics.
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Research has shown consistently that news consumption both online and offline is related positively to interpersonal discussion, political involvement and political engagement. However, little consideration has been given to the role that new sources of information may exert on different forms of political engagement. Based on secondary analysis of data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, this article contrasts the influence of traditional sources of information online with that of emergent sources (blogs) in predicting further political discussion, campaigning and participation in both the online and the offline domains. The results show that the use of traditional sources online is related positively to different types of political engagement, both online and offline. Most interestingly, the article finds that blog use emerges as an equally important predictor of political engagement in the online domain. new media & society Copyright © 2009 SAGE Publications Lo...
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