1. Comparing Online and Offline Political Participation:
Revisiting Key Debates in a Socially Networked Era
Shelley Boulianne
(with Yannis Theocharis and Karolina Koc-Michalska)

2. Overview of Presentation
Discursive Engagement
Canadian Election Study
Participatory inequality
Political discussion as a gateway
Summary
Social media & political participation (and digitally networked participation) offer a distinctive story
What is online participation?
Methodological meta- analysis of current measures
Key debates
Proposed typology/taxonomy
Institutionalized, protest, community participation etc.
Digitally networked participation

3. What is online participation?

4. What is online participation?
Analysis of 50+ studies on “participation”
Most studies combine multiple measures into a single aggregate measure
Focus on discursive activities*
Survey questions with MOST frequent listed first 1
Contact government official or political candidate* 2
Sign online or petitions 3
Donate to a campaign or political cause 4
Visit campaign websites & search for political information 5
Sign up to volunteer/did online volunteer work for a campaign 6
Sent a political message via /text/messaging service to family and friends* 7
Create or been involved in online political or civic group 8
Persuade others to participate/vote/change political views* 9
Participate in online discussion about politics or news* 10
Organize or been involved in online protest/boycott 11
Contact newspaper editors online*

5. What is online participation?
Potential Problems:
Inclusion of passive activities, such as info searching
vs. classic definitions of political participation - attempt to influence (Verba & Nie, 1972)

6. What is online participation?
Potential Problems:
Combining civic and political activities
Donating to campaigns vs. charities

7. What is online participation?
Potential Problems:
Combining institutionalized and non-institutionalized activities
Signing petitions is combined with donating to campaigns

8. What is online participation?
Key debates:
Which online political activities constitute political participation?
Are online political activities distinctive from their offline counterparts? Should dimensions (classes/factors) of participation distinguish between online and offline activities?

9. What is online participation?
Key debates:
Are Web 1.0 political activities distinct from Web 2.0 (or socially networked) activities?

10. What is online participation?
Key debates:
Should there be a continuum or participatory ladder within each dimension (class/factor) of participation?

11. Proposed typology
Gibson & Cantijoch (2013) typology

12. Proposed typology Types of participation: Voting
Consumerist participation (boycotting/buycotting)
Institutionalized participation
Community participation
Protest participation
Digitally networked participation

13. Proposed typology Types of participation: Voting
Consumerist participation (boycotting/buycotting)

14. Proposed typology Types of participation:
Institutionalized participation, such as
Donating online to a political party or campaign
Donating offline to a political party or campaign
Encourage others (offline) to donate to…
Encourage others (online or social media) to donate to…

15. Proposed typology/ Types of participation:
Community participation, such as
Donating online to a non-profit/charity
Donating offline to a non-profit/charity
Encourage others (offline) to donate to…
Encourage others (online or social media) to donate to…

16. Proposed typology Types of participation:
Protest participation, such as
Signed a petition in paper
Signed an online petition
Encouraged others to…
Participated in a march or street demonstration
Participate in a strike

17. Proposed typology Types of participation:
Digitally networked participation, such as
Shared/retweeted a political post from your friends/political party/political group
Commented on a political post from your friends/political party/political group
Joined on social media a special group that is defending a social or political cause

18. Discursive Engagement

19. Discursive Engagement
Political discussion is important, because
It is a gateway activity/first step on the participatory ladder
Widely accessible and popular
(Deliberative) talk important to identifying one’s political preferences/interests

20. Discursive Engagement
Political discussion is used to illustrate
Trade-offs of combining activities across modes in terms of participatory inequality
How different modes have different impacts on more intense forms of participation

21. Discursive Engagement CANADA
Canadian Election Study, Post-election survey 2015
In the past 12 months,
52% of respondents spoke in person about a public issue with someone you know
67% of respondents said they used social media at least one day in the past week
Of social media users, 40% of respondents used social media to discuss political or public issues with people you do know

22. Discursive Engagement CANADA
Findings
Largest groups: do not talk in either mode (n=1045) and talk in both modes (n=926)
 CANADA n=4169
Do not use social media
Use social media, but never talk politics on social media
Use social media and talk politics at least once
Never talk politics offline
n=766
n=1045
n=187
At least once talk politics offline
n=604
n=615
n=926

23. Discursive Engagement CANADA
Findings
Gender and age-based differences in modes of political discussion
Offline political discussion
Do NOT use social media
Social media political discussion
 Direction
Sign
Direction 
Sign 
Female=1
Positive **
Negative
*** ns
Age
Education
Political interest

24. Discursive Engagement CANADA
Findings
Political discussion on social media has strong effects on petitions & marches
Stronger than offline discussion
Significant selection effects
Partial Correlations
vote
petition
march
Offline talk
.045**
.244***
.188***
Non-user ns
Negative***
Social media talk
.038*
.335***
.290***

25. Discursive Engagement FRANCE
France survey, April 2017, n=1500
In the past 12 months,
86% of respondents talked offline about political issues
75% of respondents said they have a social media account (Facebook or Twitter)
Of social media users, 34% of respondents used social media to talk about political issues

26. Discursive Engagement FRANCE
Findings
Largest group: do not use social media & talk politics offline (n=1149)
 France, n=1500
Do not use social media
Use social media, but never talk politics on social media
Use social media and talk politics at least once
Never talk politics offline
n=376
n=131
n=16
At least once talk politics offline
n=1149
n=630
n=372

27. Discursive Engagement FRANCE
Findings
Gender and age-based differences in modes of political discussion
Offline political discussion
Do not use social media
Social media political discussion
 Direction
Sign
Direction 
Sign 
Female=1
Positive * ns
Negative
Age **
***
Education
Political interest

28. Discursive Engagement FRANCE
Findings
Political discussion on social media has strong effects on petitions & marches; stronger than offline discussion
Partial Correlations
vote
petition
march
Offline talk
.089**
.101***
.076**
Non-user ns
Negative**
Social media talk
.030
.326***
.298***

29. Discursive Engagement BOTH
Summary across two countries
Gender and age-based differences in modes of political discussion
Offline political discussion
Do not use social media
Social media political discussion
 Direction
Direction 
Female=1
Women
more likely to talk politics offline
Age
Older people more likely to be non-users
Younger people more likely to talk politics on social media

30. Discursive Engagement BOTH
Summary across two countries
Political discussion on social media has strong effects on petitions & marches; stronger than offline discussion, controlling for gender, age, education, and political interest
Partial Correlations
vote
petition
march
Offline talk
Non-user
Social media talk
Partial correlation of approx. .33***
Partial correlation of approx. .29***

31. Discursive Engagement BOTH
Discussion
Combining modes blurs the gender and age-based differences in modes of political discussion
Political discussion is a gateway for all activities
Mode of discussion matters. Social media discussion is important for protest participation (petitions, marches).

32. Summary of Presentation
Discursive Engagement
Gender and age-based participatory inequality
Strong correlation of social media discussion & petitions/marches
Summary
Social media offers a distinct story about participation
What is online participation?
Tendency to aggregate into a single measure
Focus on discursive activities
Proposed typology/taxonomy
Blur modes of participation for some dimensions
Digitally networked participation is distinct