Online Political Participation: Evaluation of the Changing Effects Over Time

The internet is a political participation medium that has been subject to constant changes. Just since 2008, there has been a significant increase in the amount of people who use the internet for political purposes. Building on the work of Brian Kruger and others I evaluate whether the internet brings new participants into the political process or if the internet only reinforces those who already participate. I utilize data from recent American National Election Studies to employ an ordinary least-squares regression model for recent presidential election years and assess whether the internet has brought new participants into the political fray via online political participation. I then employ a mixed effects model to identify the driving force behind an increase in online participation. Similar to Krueger and other’s findings I can conclusively claim that the internet is continuing to serve as a medium for participation by those who are not known to be active participants through traditional means, namely those of a younger age; that effect is shown to continue over time. I also find that the increase in online participation is due to the growing importance of internet-based skills in political participation