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A Boost or Bust for Democracy?

How the Web Influenced Political Attitudes and Behaviors in the 1996 and 2000 Presidential Elections

School of Journalism, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901 tjohnson{at}siu.edu

Barbara K. Kaye

Department of Broadcasting, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0333 bkk{at}utk.edu

This study employed an online survey of 442 politically interested Web users during the 2000 presidential election to examine the extent to which relying on the Web for political information influences political interest, campaign interest, political involvement, likelihood of voting, and voting behavior after controlling for demographics, political attitudes and use of the traditional media. Results from this study are compared to a similar one conducted during the 1996 presidential campaign. The respondents were highly interested in politics in general, were very interested in the 2000 campaign, expressed a high likelihood to vote, and almost all did vote. The Internet appears to engage people politically as almost two-thirds claim that their involvement in politics has increased or greatly increased since they first became online users. Politically interested Internet users were more likely to report in 2000 than 1996 that they felt they had power to bring about political change, that they were very interested in the presidential campaign, and that they were more likely to vote. The Web appears to be at least partially responsible for this increase in civic engagement as reliance on the Web was the strongest predictor of political attitudes.

Key Words: Internet • Internet democracy • Web • political interest • political involvement • political participation

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