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Evolving Learning: The Changing Effect of Internet Access on Political Knowledge and Engagement (1998–2012)
Author(s) -
Morris David S.,
Morris Jonathan S.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
sociological forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1573-7861
pISSN - 0884-8971
DOI - 10.1111/socf.12333
Subject(s) - accidental , voting , politics , socioeconomic status , the internet , consumption (sociology) , media consumption , population , knowledge level , sociology , demographic economics , public relations , political science , social science , psychology , economics , demography , mathematics education , world wide web , computer science , law , physics , acoustics
This study addresses the changing role of Internet usage on the political knowledge and participation gap between individuals of low and high socioeconomic status ( SES ). Analysis of data collected by the Pew Research Center's Biennial Media Consumption Studies (1998–2012) shows that the percentage of the population that accidentally encounters political information online has risen dramatically. Results show that accidental exposure and SES are positively related to political knowledge, and that accidental exposure reduces the SES knowledge gap. Moreover, accidental exposure appears to be mitigating the SES voting gap at an increasing rate over time.