Online and in the Know: Uses and Gratifications of the Web for Political Information

The uses and gratifications approach is well suited for studying the World Wide Web as a whole and for examining specific types of sites within the Web. This study, therefore, examines the uses and gratifications of accessing online sources for political information. A factor analysis revealed 4 primary motivations for connecting to online political information: guidance information-seeking surveillance, entertainment, and social utility. Additionally, significant correlations emerged between the 4 motivations and amount of use, trust in government, feelings of efficacy, interest in politics, and the likelihood of voting.

[1]  E. Katz.  Mass Communications Research and the Study of Popular Culture: An Editorial Note on a Possible Future for This Journal , 1959 .

[2]  P. Kemeny.  Power and Discontent , 1969 .

[3]  E. Katz,et al.  The Uses of Mass Communications: Current Perspectives on Gratifications Research. Sage Annual Reviews of Communication Research Volume III. , 1975 .

[4]  L. Becker.  Two Tests of Media Gratifications: Watergate and the 1974 Election , 1976 .

[5]  Alexis S. Tan.  Mass Media Use, Issue Knowledge and Political Involvement , 1980 .

[6]  Philip Palmgreen,et al.  GRATIFICATIONS SOUGHT AND MEDIA EXPOSURE An Expectancy Value Model , 1982 .

[7]  Lawrence A. Wenner,et al.  GRATIFICATIONS SOUGHT AND OBTAINED IN PROGRAM DEPENDENCY , 1982 .

[8]  Floyd J. Fowler,et al.  Survey Research Methods , 1984 .

[9]  Philip Palmgreen,et al.  Uses and Gratifications: A Theoretical Perspective , 1984 .

[10]  A. Rubin.  Ritualized and Instrumental Television Viewing , 1984 .

[11]  A. Bandura.  Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory , 1985 .

[12]  K. Rosengren,et al.  Media gratifications research : current perspectives , 1985 .

[13]  S. Chaffee,et al.  Measurement and Effects of Attention to Media News , 1986 .

[14]  J. Stevens.  Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences , 1986 .

[15]  Michael Lynn James,et al.  An exploratory study of the perceived benefits of electronic bulletin board use and their impact on other communication activities , 1992 .

[16]  John A. Courtright,et al.  Normative Images of Communication Media Mass and Interpersonal Channels in the New Media Environment , 1993 .

[17]  John E. Newhagen,et al.  Why Communication Researchers Should Study the Internet: A Dialogue , 1996, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[18]  S. Rafaeli,et al.  Why Communication Researchers Should Study the Internet: A Dialogue , 1996, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[19]  Patricia Fallows-Hammond,et al.  Breaking the news : how the media undermine American democracy , 1996 .

[20]  David Weaver,et al.  On-Line Democracy or On-Line Demagoguery? , 1997 .

[21]  John Eighmey.  Profiling user responses to commercial web sites , 1997 .

[22]  Bruce Bimber,et al.  The Internet and Political Transformation: Populism, Community, and Accelerated Pluralism , 1998, Polity.

[23]  Thomas J. Johnson,et al.  Cruising is Believing?: Comparing Internet and Traditional Sources on Media Credibility Measures , 1998 .

[24]  David J. Atkin,et al.  Understanding internet adoption as telecommunications behavior , 1998 .

[25]  Elizabeth M. Perse,et al.  The utility of home computers and media use: Implications of multimedia and connectivity , 1998 .

[26]  Barbara K. Kaye,et al.  Uses and gratifications of the World Wide Web: From couch potato to web potato , 1998 .

[27]  P. Korgaonkar.  A Multivariate Analysis of Web Usage , 1999 .

[28]  Norman J. Medoff,et al.  The World Wide Web: A Mass Communication Perspective , 1999 .

[29]  Thomas J. Johnson,et al.  Research Methodology: Taming the Cyber Frontier , 1999 .

[30]  Douglas A. Ferguson,et al.  The World Wide Web as a Functional Alternative to Television , 2000 .

[31]  David A. Schultz.  It's show time! : media, politics, and popular culture , 2000 .