The relationship between online campaigning and political involvement
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between interactive and personal campaigning on social media and political involvement, and the mechanisms that explain the effects. Specifically, this study examines whether personal and interactive communication on Twitter increases political involvement among citizens through social presence and perceived expertise.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental design – a 2 (low vs high interactivity)×3 (depersonalized vs individualized vs privatized communication) between-subjects design – is used.
Findings
The findings show that interactive communication leads to a stronger sense of social presence and source expertise, which positively affect involvement. The effects of personal campaigning differ. Individualized communication positively affects involvement via source expertise. Interestingly, privatized communication positively affects involvement via social presence, but negatively via source expertise.
Originality/value
Although a growing body of work examines the political consequences of social media, there is still very little understanding why social media affect citizens. The current study fills this void by investigating how the use of social media affects political involvement among citizens.
Keywords
Citation
Kruikemeier, S., van Noort, G., Vliegenthart, R. and H. de Vreese, C. (2016), "The relationship between online campaigning and political involvement", Online Information Review, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 673-694. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-11-2015-0346
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited