Information and Expression in a Digital Age

By Dhavan V. Shah, Jaeho Cho, William P. Eveland, Nojin Kwak. Communication Research, 2005

641 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article examines the role of the Internet as a source of political information and a sphere for public expression. Informational media use, whether traditional news sources or online public affairs content, is expected to foster interpersonal political discussion and online civic messaging, contributing to increased civic participation. Using two-wave national panel survey data, three types of synchronous structural equation models are tested: cross sectional (relating individual differences), fixed effects (relating intraindividual change), and auto regressive (relating aggregate change). All models reveal that online media complement traditional media to foster political discussion and civic messaging. These two forms of political expression, in turn, influence civic participation. Other variable orderings are tested to compare the theorized model to alternative causal specifications. Results reveal that the model produces the best fit, empirically and theoretically, with the influence of the Internet, rivaling the mobilizing power of traditional modes of information and expression.

Subfields: Communication, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3390c0f01dd01f175ab7ddcd9c7465ee0c97c7a8

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Communication

In Political Science and International Relations

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Accidental exposure to politics on social media as online participation equalizer in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom (2016, background): “…et al. (2001) highlight that web-based accidental exposure can bridge information inequalities—which may have implications on participation (see Shah et al., 2005)—and the theoretical considerations outlined above on the distinctive features and uses of social media also support such…”
Weblogs, traditional sources online and political participation: an assessment of how the internet is changing the political environment (2009, background): “…webpages, forums, etc., in such a way that blogs become interconnected and interdependent, with some of them becoming central in terms of those to which others are the most linked (Bar-Ilan, 2005; Coleman, 2004; Drezner and Farrell, 2004; Johnson and Kaye, 2004; Singer, 2005; Thompson, 2003).”
Media Effects: Theory and Research. (2016, background): “For example, Shah et al (2005) found that online civic messaging—that is, the creation of political messages on the Internet—significantly influenced the senders’ own civic engagement, and often more strongly than exposure to traditional news media.”
Facebook and political engagement: A study of online political group membership and offline political engagement (2012, background): “Yet the Internet is changing the ways in which we communicate, organize, and socialize (Bimber, Flanagin, & Stohl, 2005; Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Gil de Zuniga & Valenzuela, 2011; Hampton & Wellman, 2001; Klein, 1999; Rich, 1999; Shah et al., 2005).”
Does Internet Use Affect Engagement? A Meta-Analysis of Research (2009, background): “Shah et al., 2005 Figure 2 (pg. 545) of original paper.”