The relationship between Internet usage and participation in election related activities

• Main Authors: Wu, Shwu Jiunn, 吳淑俊
• Other Authors: 王石番
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/61553821643039600099

博士 === 國立政治大學 === 新聞研究所 === 99 === The birth of a new technological product always brings to people an endless imagination on how this would promote the political participation. The scholars who think the Internet helps “mobilize” civic engagement believe the Internet helps to “inform,” “organize” and “attract” the individuals who are marginalized in the existing political systems. Some scholars, however, believe the Internet merely has a “reinforcement” effect on those who are already active in the political systems. According to the reinforcement theory, the Internet only benefits the elites despite its features of openness and decentralization; as a result, biases may still exist and even worsen. On the other hand, scholars who propose the “time replacement” theory believe that the time spent on participating in real-world activities is replaced by the time spent online, and this inevitably puts a loss on people’s social capital. Consequently, Internet usage has negative effects on social and political participation. All three above theories are supported by past studies, and there are sufficient findings on the variables that predicted political participation. But a discussion about the correlations between those factors is still lacking. As an attempt to reveal the correlation between the patterns of Internet usage and election related activities, a phone survey was conducted with 1,434 individuals in Taipei City, New Taipei City and Kaohsiung City who are 20-years of age and above. The findings indicate whether one accesses to the Internet or not does not predict one’s participation in voting, and a further analysis of different patterns of Internet usage is required.