Page 238 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Information Technology and Political Engagement
models of engagement. A null finding, on the other hand, would be
more conclusive. If Internet use exerts any positive influence, it is likely
to appear in this variable.
I ran this model for five political acts: voting; displaying a campaign
button, sticker, or yard sign; attending a meeting, rally, speech, or dinner
in support of a candidate; working on a campaign in some other way;
and donating money to a candidate, party, or group. Since information
technology is changing so rapidly over time, I ran these models both for
1998and2000.Theresults,whichareshownfor1998inTable 5.5,provide
for a comparison across political acts for each variable. Political interest
is the most consistently significant variable, followed by education and
contact with a mobilizer. The strongest model is for voting, where the
expected factors show up as significant: education, age, income, whether
therespondentwascontactedbyanorganizationandaskedtoparticipate,
political interest, and trust in others. 47
Use of the Internet for political information is not significant in the
1998 voting model. While more Internet users (for political purposes)
voted than non-Internet users, this difference is accounted for by these
otherfactors,especiallyeducationandinterest.Similarly,useoftheInter-
net has no significant effect on displaying a political message, attending
a political event, or working on a campaign.
However, in the case of donating money, the Internet variable is sig-
nificant. People who obtained political information through the Internet
were more likely to donate money than those who did not in 1998. There
are several possibilities for why this occurred. One is that the kind of peo-
ple who are likely to donate money in an election year are also likely to
obtain political information through the Internet. The reasons for such a
relationship are unclear and cannot be inferred from the model at hand.
AnotherexplanationisthenoveltyeffectofInternet-baseddonationsand
solicitations for money. These were pioneered by candidates for the most
part in 1998, although they were not heavily pushed by candidates until
2000. General enthusiasm for financial transactions on the Internet and
the stimulation of new means for soliciting and donating may explain
some of the effect. In any event, this is a somewhat surprising finding
though substantively very modest.
Results for the year 2000 are similar, but also contain a few unexpected
findings. In these models, the Internet variable is significant again for
donating money, but also for attending a political event and for voting.

47 2
r = 0.40.
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