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The Effects of Internet use on Political Participation: A Statistical Analysis of the African Context

Cartling Wallén, Cecilia LU (2022) MIDM19 20221
LUMID International Master programme in applied International Development and Management
Department of Human Geography
Abstract
The internet brings a multitude of opportunities for information access, communication, and mobilization. Many studies point to the democratizing effect of the internet in that it increases political participation among citizens. However, much of this evidence is produced on a Western context where the penetration of the internet is well-established. This thesis examines the effect of internet use on political participation in the understudied region of Africa. By disaggregating the concept “political participation” into conventional and unconventional participation, and building on previous research, the analytical framework lays the foundation for H1: internet use positively predicts political participation and H2: internet use has a... (More)
The internet brings a multitude of opportunities for information access, communication, and mobilization. Many studies point to the democratizing effect of the internet in that it increases political participation among citizens. However, much of this evidence is produced on a Western context where the penetration of the internet is well-established. This thesis examines the effect of internet use on political participation in the understudied region of Africa. By disaggregating the concept “political participation” into conventional and unconventional participation, and building on previous research, the analytical framework lays the foundation for H1: internet use positively predicts political participation and H2: internet use has a stronger positive effect on unconventional forms of participation than on conventional. Modeling ordinal logistic regression using R, survey data from 33 African countries from Afrobarometer wave 5 is examined (n=46 120). The study rejects both H1 and H2 and thus concludes the need for an elaborated version of an analytical framework tailored to the African context. However, the study argues that the disaggregation between conventional and unconventional participation is relevant and applicable. The conclusions from the study illuminates the lack of universality of the processes, mechanisms, and causalities found in a Western context. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Cartling Wallén, Cecilia LU
supervisor
organization
course
MIDM19 20221
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Democracy, Political participation, Internet, Internet use, Ordinal logistic regression, R, Statistical analysis, Africa, Afrobarometer
language
English
id
9079321
date added to LUP
2022-07-20 10:54:26
date last changed
2022-07-20 10:54:26
@misc{9079321,
  abstract     = {{The internet brings a multitude of opportunities for information access, communication, and mobilization. Many studies point to the democratizing effect of the internet in that it increases political participation among citizens. However, much of this evidence is produced on a Western context where the penetration of the internet is well-established. This thesis examines the effect of internet use on political participation in the understudied region of Africa. By disaggregating the concept “political participation” into conventional and unconventional participation, and building on previous research, the analytical framework lays the foundation for H1: internet use positively predicts political participation and H2: internet use has a stronger positive effect on unconventional forms of participation than on conventional. Modeling ordinal logistic regression using R, survey data from 33 African countries from Afrobarometer wave 5 is examined (n=46 120). The study rejects both H1 and H2 and thus concludes the need for an elaborated version of an analytical framework tailored to the African context. However, the study argues that the disaggregation between conventional and unconventional participation is relevant and applicable. The conclusions from the study illuminates the lack of universality of the processes, mechanisms, and causalities found in a Western context.}},
  author       = {{Cartling Wallén, Cecilia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Effects of Internet use on Political Participation: A Statistical Analysis of the African Context}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}