November 3, 2008
Much has been written this election season about how the Internet, especially social-networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, has changed the way people access and share political information. But to what extent are these sites engaging potential voters? And how much information is just being scanned over or ignored? These questions are the focus of a survey-based study by Gary Hanson and Paul Haridakis, communications professors at Kent State University. They plan to finish collecting data in the coming weeks and publish their findings by the beginning of next year. Online social networking is playing a major role in a presidential election for the first time this campaign, Mr. Haridakis said in an interview, and without any quantitative research so far it’s possible that the effect of social networking on voter activism may be overstated. Although many Web users may have read a news article posted by a friend, for example, fewer may have gone so far as to post their own content. “It might mean they’re just getting more information, not more empowerment,” he said. A recent poll of college students in four battleground states that was conducted by The Chronicle, CBS News, and UWIRE, found that a relatively small portion of undergraduates were becoming online activists. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they have watched a YouTube clip about a candidate, but only 2 percent said they had posted a political video on the site. Similarly, 65 percent have visited a candidate’s Web page, but only 28 percent have forwarded an e-mail message or commentary about a candidate to a friend or family member. However, the influence of social networking could be significant. Unlike a newspaper article or television broadcast, the information presented on sites like Facebook and MySpace is filtered through a user’s circle of friends and acquaintances. “They may trust those people more than they would a media organization or a campaign,” Mr. Haridakis said. Although online social networking is a new research topic, previous research has provided the framework for studying how the media affects voting behavior. A 1940s study by sociologists Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz found that interpersonal communication among friends and family members has far more of an influence on voting behavior than the media does. Moreover, the sociologists’ findings indicated that the few people who did consult the media for political information acted as “opinion leaders” and disseminated their views to everyone else. The Kent State researchers plan to look at how this model operates within the new media framework, given the expansion of interpersonal circles through social networking on the Internet. The study will also examine how many people are acting as Web-based opinion leaders, and how many are instead assuming the role of followers. —Caitlin Moran