The Effect of Website Interactivity on Political Involvement:The Moderating Role of Political Cynicism

This study examines the extent to which interactive communication on political websites affects various forms of citizens’ involvement in politics, and the moderating role of political cynicism in this relationship. Based on the outcomes of a laboratory experiment with a single-factor (interactivity: low vs. medium vs. high interactivity) between-subjects design, we found that interactive political websites have a positive effect on citizen involvement, and this effect is particularly present for websites with high levels of interactivity. We also demonstrate that interactivity effects are, to some extent, contingent on citizens’ political cynicism. For higher levels of political cynicism, deviations in the level of interactivity make less of a difference in their impact on political involvement

Bricks versus Clicks : A self-regulation perspective on consumer responses in online and conventional shopping environments

Kleinnijenhuis, J. [Promotor]Kerkhof, P. [Copromotor]Fennis, B.M. [Copromotor

Digital diplomacy in GCC countries: strategic communication of Western embassies on Twitter

Drawing upon online communication research, this study identifies six effective communication strategies for social media-based diplomacy on Twitter: interactive, personalized, positive, relevant, and transparent communication among a broad network of stakeholders. By using an extensive mix-method design (i.e., combining a manual content and automated network analyses, N = 4438 tweets), this research examines to what extent these communication strategies are adopted on Twitter by Western embassies active in countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council. We found that embassies are not utilizing social media to its full potential. Although embassies are transparent, use positive sentiment in their online communication and post relevant information to their stakeholders, they hardly engage in direct interactive and personal communication, and only reach out to a limited group of stakeholders. We recommend embassies to put more emphasis on two-way interactive communication with a vast variety of stakeholders