The internet is a political participation medium that has been subject to constant changes. Just since 2008, there has been a significant increase in the amount of people who use the internet for political purposes. Building on the work of Brian Kruger and others I evaluate whether the internet brings new participants into the political process or if the internet only \"reinforces\" those who already participate. I utilize data from recent American National Election Studies to employ an ordinary least-squares regression model for recent presidential election years and assess whether the internet has brought new participants into the political fray via online political participation. I then employ a mixed effects model to identify the driving force behind an increase in online participation. Similar to Krueger and other’s findings I can conclusively claim that the internet is continuing to serve as a medium for participation by those who are not known to be active participants through traditional means, namely those of a younger age; that effect is shown to continue over time. I also find that the increase in online participation is due to the growing importance of internet-based skills in political participation.
","abstract_html":"<p>The internet is a political participation medium that has been subject to constant changes. Just since 2008, there has been a significant increase in the amount of people who use the internet for political purposes. Building on the work of Brian Kruger and others I evaluate whether the internet brings new participants into the political process or if the internet only "reinforces" those who already participate. I utilize data from recent American National Election Studies to employ an ordinary least-squares regression model for recent presidential election years and assess whether the internet has brought new participants into the political fray via online political participation. I then employ a mixed effects model to identify the driving force behind an increase in online participation. Similar to Krueger and other’s findings I can conclusively claim that the internet is continuing to serve as a medium for participation by those who are not known to be active participants through traditional means, namely those of a younger age; that effect is shown to continue over time. I also find that the increase in online participation is due to the growing importance of internet-based skills in political participation.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["May, Gabriel Davis"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Iliyan Iliev","Marek Steedman","Troy Gibson"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2019-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:12Z","subjects":["Political Participation","Electoral Behavior","Online Political Participation","Offline Political Particpation","American Politics","Political Science","Social and Behavioral Sciences"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/644","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Iliyan Iliev","Marek Steedman","Troy Gibson"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["May, Gabriel Davis"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-03-27T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Political Participation","Electoral Behavior","Online Political Participation","Offline Political Particpation","American Politics","Political Science","Social and Behavioral Sciences"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/644"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The internet is a political participation medium that has been subject to constant changes. Just since 2008, there has been a significant increase in the amount of people who use the internet for political purposes. Building on the work of Brian Kruger and others I evaluate whether the internet brings new participants into the political process or if the internet only \"reinforces\" those who already participate. I utilize data from recent American National Election Studies to employ an ordinary least-squares regression model for recent presidential election years and assess whether the internet has brought new participants into the political fray via online political participation. I then employ a mixed effects model to identify the driving force behind an increase in online participation. Similar to Krueger and other’s findings I can conclusively claim that the internet is continuing to serve as a medium for participation by those who are not known to be active participants through traditional means, namely those of a younger age; that effect is shown to continue over time. I also find that the increase in online participation is due to the growing importance of internet-based skills in political participation.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Online Political Participation: Evaluation of the Changing Effects Over Time"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Iliyan Iliev","Marek Steedman","Troy Gibson"],"dc:creator":["May, Gabriel Davis"],"dc:date.available":["2019-03-27T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The internet is a political participation medium that has been subject to constant changes. Just since 2008, there has been a significant increase in the amount of people who use the internet for political purposes. Building on the work of Brian Kruger and others I evaluate whether the internet brings new participants into the political process or if the internet only \"reinforces\" those who already participate. I utilize data from recent American National Election Studies to employ an ordinary least-squares regression model for recent presidential election years and assess whether the internet has brought new participants into the political fray via online political participation. I then employ a mixed effects model to identify the driving force behind an increase in online participation. Similar to Krueger and other’s findings I can conclusively claim that the internet is continuing to serve as a medium for participation by those who are not known to be active participants through traditional means, namely those of a younger age; that effect is shown to continue over time. I also find that the increase in online participation is due to the growing importance of internet-based skills in political participation.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/644"],"dc:subject":["Political Participation","Electoral Behavior","Online Political Participation","Offline Political Particpation","American Politics","Political Science","Social and Behavioral Sciences"],"dc:title":["Online Political Participation: Evaluation of the Changing Effects Over Time"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:12Z"}