Internet Information and Communication Behavior during a Political Moment: The Iraq War, March 2003

This article explores the Internet as a resource for political information and communication in March 2003, when American troops were first sent to Iraq, offering us a unique setting of political context, information use, and technology. Employing a national survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life project. We examine the political information behavior of the Internet respondents through an exploratory factor analysis; analyze the effects of personal demographic attributes and political attitudes, traditional and new media use, and technology on online behavior through multiple regression analysis; and assess the online political information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War. The factor analysis suggests four factors: activism, support, information seeking, and communication. The regression analysis indicates that gender, political attitudes and beliefs, motivation, traditional media consumption, perceptions of bias in the media, and computer experience and use predict online political information behavior, although the effects of these variables differ for the four factors. The information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War differed significantly. We conclude with a brief discussion of the value of "interdisciplinary poaching" for advancing the study of Internet information practices

The psychology of voting action : on the psychological origins of electoral research, 1939-1964

This article examines the development of psychologically oriented voting behavior research between 1939-1964. It intends to show the psychological basis of the Columbia and Michigan approaches and its implications for the analysis of electoral behavior. It is argued that, in spite of the large differences commonly perceived between these two approaches, there is much similarity between them, both with regard to their psychological roots as to their principal conclusions

Interpersonal communication pattern of farmers through key communicators regarding some selected Gram Panchayat activities

Devolution of power to the grassroot organisations has increasingly been supported in recent years within the context of participatory development. The role of interpersonal communication to actualise such development has also become an area of fresh enquiry. To explore the pattern of interpersonal communication regarding the functioning of panchayati raj institutions (PRI), hence, was taken up for the present study. Key communicator network of farmers was studied as neighbourhood, friendship and discussion group pattern to explore farmers’ interpersonal communication pattern regarding PRI activities. Sociometric technique was employed to identify the key communicators and their networks. Neighbourhood pattern of interaction showed least dense key communicator network and least dependence of farmers on these key communicators for securing information. Friendship pattern of interaction featured higher number of respondents seeking information from more than one key communicator; whereas, discussion group pattern of interaction showed least number of key communicators and highest inter-key communicator interaction. These networks can be fruitfully used to identify and facilitate information flow regarding PRI functioning; at the same time capacity building of key communicators can contribute towards the smooth functioning of these grassroot organisations.Panchayati Raj Institutions, interpersonal communication, key communicator, key communicator network

Interpersonal communication pattern of farmers through key communicators regarding some selected Gram Panchayat activities

Devolution of power to the grassroot organisations has increasingly been supported in recent years within the context of participatory development. The role of interpersonal communication to actualise such development has also become an area of fresh enquiry. To explore the pattern of interpersonal communication regarding the functioning of panchayati raj institutions (PRI), hence, was taken up for the present study. Key communicator network of farmers was studied as neighbourhood, friendship and discussion group pattern to explore farmers’ interpersonal communication pattern regarding PRI activities. Sociometric technique was employed to identify the key communicators and their networks. Neighbourhood pattern of interaction showed least dense key communicator network and least dependence of farmers on these key communicators for securing information. Friendship pattern of interaction featured higher number of respondents seeking information from more than one key communicator; whereas, discussion group pattern of interaction showed least number of key communicators and highest inter-key communicator interaction. These networks can be fruitfully used to identify and facilitate information flow regarding PRI functioning; at the same time capacity building of key communicators can contribute towards the smooth functioning of these grassroot organisations.Panchayati Raj Institutions, interpersonal communication, key communicator, key communicator network

Are You Being Served?: Political Accountability and Quality of Government

This paper explores, both formally and empirically, the political accountability mechanisms that lie behind the varying levels of public corruption and of effective governance taking place across nations. The first section develops a principal-agent model in which good governance is a function of the extent to which citizens can hold political officials accountable for their actions. Although policy-makers may have strong incentives to appropriate parts of the citizens` income, well-designed institutions (those increasing both informational flows and elite competitiveness) boost political accountability and reduce the space left for the appropriation of rents. The following sections of the paper test the model. The presence of democratic mechanisms of control and an increasingly informed electorate, measured through the frequency of newspaper readership, explain considerably well the distribution of corrupt practices and governmental ineffectiveness in three types of data sets: a large cross-section of countries in the late 1990s for which an extensive battery of governance indicators has been recently developed by Kaufmann et al. (1999a); a panel data set for the period 1980-95 and about 100 nations on corruption and bureaucratic quality based on experts` rankings; and corruption data for the cross-section of US states in the period 1977-95.

Social Networks, Political Discussion and Voting in Italy: A Study of the 2006 Election

This article analyzes the role of interpersonal discussion networks and television as the key mediators of political information that can potentially drive citizens’ electoral choices. The research relies on survey data of Italian voters in the aftermath of the 2006 general election. Findings show that the partisan intensity of discussion networks significantly affects the vote, so that citizens embedded in homogeneous partisan networks are more influenced than those who discuss politics within heterogeneous networks that do not uniformly support a unified political position. The effects of television news programs and talk shows turn out to be comparatively smaller than those of interpersonal networks, but are still significant for those programs and formats that attract politically diverse audiences. We interpret this result as a consequence of the increasing relevance of selective exposure in the Italian electorate, which has largely been documented by previous research. Thus, while the effects of interpersonal discussion networks seem to depend on the degree of their partisan intensity, the impact of television seems to be enhanced, in the Italian context, by a program’s ability to present itself as less openly biased than most of the competitors, thus failing to elicit selective exposure by the viewers. The main implication of this study is that interpersonal communication has a remarkable influence on citizens’ choices, and it should be studied together with mass communication, as they both constitute crucial components of voters’ information environments, although their effects depend on partially different factors

Intra-Campaign Changes in Voting Preferences: The Impact of Media and Party Communication

An increasing number of citizens change and adapt their party preferences during the electoral campaign. We analyze which short-term factors explain intra-campaign changes in voting preferences, focusing on the visibility and tone of news media reporting and party canvassing. Our analyses rely on an integrative data approach, linking data from media content analysis to public opinion data. This enables us to investigate the relative impact of news media reporting as well as party communication. Inherently, we overcome previously identified methodological problems in the study of communication effects on voting behavior. Our findings reveal that campaigns matter: Especially interpersonal party canvassing increases voters’ likelihood to change their voting preferences in favor of the respective party, whereas media effects are limited to quality news outlets and depend on individual voters’ party ambivalence

Social Dangers of European Integration

Integracja europejska jako proces społeczny pozostaje pod wpływem licznych zagrożeń, które w różnym zakresie mogą na nią oddziaływać. Przynajmniej częściowo występują one na płaszczyźnie politycznej - stając się konsekwencją zachodzących procesów ekonomicznych czy psychologicznych. Ewolucja postaw społecznych jednostek może mieć negatywne znaczenie dla europejskich społeczeństw. W niniejszym artykule szczególną uwagę autorzy poświęcają zagrożeniom płynącym z atomizacji, anomii oraz społecznej alienacji. Odniesieniem dla ich oddziaływania jest sfera społeczno-polityczna. Atomizacja może wpływać na poziom uczestnictwa politycznego i doprowadzić do upadku moralnych i społecznych zasad demokracji. Anomia wiąże się z reakcjami adaptacyjnymi, które mogą powodować wycofanie się z istniejących norm i wartości społecznych. Dodatkowo anomia i atomizacja mogą oddziaływać w ramach megatrendów sprawiając, że trudniej adaptować procesy demokratyzacyjne. Mając na uwadze znaczenie aspektu psychologicznego funkcjonowania jednostki w środowisku społecznym, analizie został poddany także problem alienacji społecznej, który w określonych wymiarach może stanowić istotne zagrożenie dla procesów integracji europejskiej.European integration as a social process is endangered by phenomena which can reduce, stop and downgrade this process. They occur, at least partly, out of political intentions. They become a conseąuence of existing processes in the political, industrial and psychosocial spheres. The evolution of social attitudes of an individual can take the wrong direction, and this can result in a negative influence on social systems. In this paper, special attention is placed on a few of them: atomisation, anomie and social alienation, linked to political and social problems. Atomisation can effect political participation and can lead to morał decay of the social rules of democracy. Anomie leads to adaptation reactions, which can cause withdrawal from existing values and social norms. Additionally, stratification of anomie and atomisation in terms of megatrends makes it harder to counteract their results, because the character of these phenomena leads to an indirect relationship with integration. Bearing in mind the importance of psychological functioning of individuals in a changing social environment, the issue of social alienation that at certain levels of intensity can pose a threat to European integration was also analysed

Trust, distrust and the paradox of democracy

According to the three-dimensional theory of trust which the author develops in his recent work, the measure of trust that people vest on their fellow citizens or institutions depends on three factors: the reflected trustworthiness as estimated by themselves in more or less rational manner, the attitude of basic trustfulness deriving from socialization, and the culture of trust pervading their society and normatively constraining for each member. The culture of trust is shaped by historical experiences of a society - the tradition of trust, and by the current structural context -the trust-inspiring milieu. The author presents a model of a structural context conducive for the emergence of the culture of trust, and then argues that the democratic organization contributes to the trust-generating conditions, like normative certainty, transparency, stability, accountability etc. The mechanism of this influence is found to be doubly paradoxical. First, democracy breeds the culture of trust by institutionalizing distrust, at many levels of democratic organization. And second, the strongest influence of democracy on the culture of trust may be expected when the institutionalized distrust remains only the potential insurance of trustworthiness, a resource used sparingly and only when there appear significant breaches of trust. Of all three components in the three-dimensional model of trust, the cultural dimension is most susceptible to practical, political measures. And the most promising method to elicit the culture of trust is designing democratic institutions and safeguarding their viable functioning. --