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Selective Exposure and Impact of a Cyber Election Campaign on Voting Behaviors: U.S. Presidential Election 2000
Unformatted Document Text:  Cyber Campaign 19 motivates respondents to vote and the effect of candidate Web sites on voting is stronger than that of news Web sites. However, the reverse could be true; respondents who decided to vote were more motivated to use online information sources. DISCUSSION Possible Impact on Voting Behavior This study presented new and different empirical evidence that candidate Web site use and news Web site use, as opposed to traditional media use, are significant predictors for the higher probability of voting, as Charts 7 and 8 clearly demonstrated. Past research found that the use of the traditional media such as viewing television and reading newspapers is an indicator of higher voting turnout. However, the effects of television news and newspapers on voting were partialled out after controlling for the use of candidate Web sites and news Web sites. This result has an important implication: Web site use for political purposes may have a tremendous impact on voting and the influence of the traditional media on voting may be fading away in the Internet age. This study did not verify cause and effect evidence that logging on to the Web sites actually led respondents to the polls. It is entirely possible that respondents who have already decided to vote are more likely to log on to the Web sites than those less determined, i.e., the pre-determination proposition. If the pre-determination proposition is right, the decision to vote should nullify the online media’s effects on voting turnout in a multivariate analysis; however, the proposition could not invalidate the possibility that the Web site use has an impact on higher voting. Another multiple logit regression analysis was conducted by including the “pre-determination variable” (Time 1 decision to vote for a candidate: coded 0 for No, 1 for Yes) as well as these online media use as independent variables. The result demonstrated that candidate Web sites and news Web sites still have significant impacts on the higher probability of voting after controlling for “pre-determination.”

Authors: Inoue, Yasuhiro.
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Cyber Campaign 19
motivates respondents to vote and the effect of candidate Web sites on voting is stronger than
that of news Web sites. However, the reverse could be true; respondents who decided to
vote were more motivated to use online information sources.
DISCUSSION
Possible Impact on Voting Behavior
This study presented new and different empirical evidence that candidate Web site
use and news Web site use, as opposed to traditional media use, are significant predictors for
the higher probability of voting, as Charts 7 and 8 clearly demonstrated. Past research found
that the use of the traditional media such as viewing television and reading newspapers is an
indicator of higher voting turnout. However, the effects of television news and newspapers
on voting were partialled out after controlling for the use of candidate Web sites and news
Web sites. This result has an important implication: Web site use for political purposes may
have a tremendous impact on voting and the influence of the traditional media on voting may
be fading away in the Internet age.
This study did not verify cause and effect evidence that logging on to the Web sites
actually led respondents to the polls. It is entirely possible that respondents who have
already decided to vote are more likely to log on to the Web sites than those less determined,
i.e., the pre-determination proposition. If the pre-determination proposition is right, the
decision to vote should nullify the online media’s effects on voting turnout in a multivariate
analysis; however, the proposition could not invalidate the possibility that the Web site use
has an impact on higher voting. Another multiple logit regression analysis was conducted
by including the “pre-determination variable” (Time 1 decision to vote for a candidate: coded
0 for No, 1 for Yes) as well as these online media use as independent variables. The result
demonstrated that candidate Web sites and news Web sites still have significant impacts on
the higher probability of voting after controlling for “pre-determination.”


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