Stumbling upon news on the Internet: Effects of incidental news exposure and relative entertainment use on political engagement
Introduction
Given that an active citizenry has important implications for democratic society (Dahl, 1989, Delli Carpini and Keeter, 1996), communication scholars have focused on how the Internet may either contribute to or be harmful in informing citizens and promoting their political engagement. Some scholars see the Internet as having the potential for a more healthy democracy since it provides citizens with easy access to ample information about politics and news and offers less costly venues for engagement in politics. Others argue that the Internet may be harmful for democratic society because increased opportunities for individual control of online content enables individuals to avoid news and information about public affairs. That is, although the Internet provides a vast amount of information, it allows people to consume media content that matches their individual interests and needs (Sunstein, 2001, Tewksbury, 2005), which in turn might increase opportunities to select mainly entertainment content and avoid news; thereby leading to a decrease in political participation (Prior, 2005, Prior, 2007, Prior, 2005, Prior, 2007, Scheufele and Nisbet, 2002).
Yet an important phenomenon needs to be taken into consideration in the debate over the role of the Internet in a democratic process, which is incidental news exposure online. There are increasing opportunities for people to stumble onto news even when they surf the Internet for non-news items (Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 1999). Moreover, recent changes in the contemporary Internet environment (e.g., search engines, social networking sites, and microblogs like Twitter) suggest that the role of unintentional news exposure may have a significant potential for providing information about politics and public affairs (Kim, Hsu, & Gil de Zúñiga, 2013). With increased opportunities for unintentional exposure to news on the Internet, more people may be exposed to a greater number of stories about politics and public affairs, including mobilizing information (Lemert, 1984). As a consequence, surfing the Internet might inadvertently contribute to participatory citizenship—that is, engagement in political activities—through incidental news exposure.
Unfortunately, however, very little is known about the effects of incidental news exposure on political variables (e.g., political knowledge and political engagement). One notable exception (Tewksbury, Weaver, & Maddex, 2001) examined the effects of incidental news exposure online on individuals’ current affairs knowledge and found that accidental news exposure may have a positive role in informing citizens. Despite the fact that the possibilities of getting news accidentally online have increased in the contemporary new media environment, very little attention has been paid to this topic, which calls for further investigation of the role of incidental exposure. In particular, while Tewksbury et al. (2001) shed light on an understudied area – namely, the role of unintentional news exposure in the democratic process – they did not take into consideration the role of incidental exposure in promoting citizens’ political engagement.
Nor has research to date inquired about the relationship between incidental news exposure and relative entertainment use – individuals’ preferences for entertainment over news on the Internet. In other words, how do these two possible types of exposure – incidental exposure to news online and relative entertainment use or selective exposure to entertainment – interact with each other in affecting individuals’ political participation behaviors? Existing studies have produced inconsistent findings about whether the Internet has a positive or negative effect on political participation, in part, due to different operationalization of Internet use (Boulianne, 2009). In general, however, it is agreed that entertainment use may have a negative impact on the public’s political knowledge and their political engagement whereas news consumption may have a positive effect (Prior, 2005, Scheufele and Nisbet, 2002). Yet unanswered is this question: what if someone stumbles upon news when surfing the Internet for a different purpose? Is this incidental news exposure online helpful for democratic citizenship (i.e., participatory democracy)?
The present study aims to fill a gap in the literature by examining whether and how incidental news exposure online and relative entertainment use are associated with individuals’ political participation; also, how incidental news exposure and relative entertainment use interact with each other to influence political engagement.
Section snippets
Incidental news exposure and political participation
Literature has demonstrated that news media use positively influences people’s political participation by providing mobilizing information and facilitating political conversations among citizens (Lemert, 1984, Norris, 2000, Shah et al., 2005, Wolfinger and Rosenstone, 1980). Specifically, studies have identified increased levels of political engagement among individuals who are exposed to news online or who discuss public affairs over the Internet (Rojas et al., 2005, Shah et al., 2001).
Data
The data for this study was collected via an online survey of adults in the US from December 15, 2008 to January 5, 2009. The data set used in this study is based on an online panel administered by the Media Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. The Media Research Lab based this national sample on two US Census variables: gender and age. For a more accurate representation of the population, the matched sample using census data has been validated in previous research (Iyengar &
Results
Table 1 presents the results of the regression models predicting offline and online political participation. The statistical models explained 22.8% of the variance of offline political participation and 32.7% of the variance of online participation. Consonant with previous research, individuals’ age, education, income, strength of partisanship, political efficacy, news media use, and political discussion were positively associated with offline political participation or online political
Discussion
This study sheds light on the role of the Internet for participatory democracy by examining how and whether incidental news exposure and relative entertainment use online are related to citizens’ political participation. It does so in a unique way by further analyzing how people’s incidental news exposure and selective or relative entertainment use interplay in influencing individuals’ political engagement. The results of our analysis offer evidence that unintentional or accidental news
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