The Consequences of the Internet for Politics

“In part, this reflects fundamental methodological problems in distinguishing between homophily and social influence using standard data (Shalizi & Thomas 2011), and in part, genuine ambiguity in research results.”

“A recurring theme in the literature on the Internet and politics is how the increasing amount and heterogeneity of political information citizens have access to affects their political views (Farrell 2012).”

“Social media are increasingly a key locus for information exchange, opinion formation, political debate and political activism (Sunstein, 2007; Farrell, 2012).”

“…of social media on political participation and to develop and refine empirically testable theories of the microlevel (i.e., social, psychological) processes by which these effects might occur (Aday et al., 2010; Farrell, 2012; Gonz alez-Bail on et al., 2011; McGarty et al., 2013; Meier, 2011).”

“(For an earlier review, see Farrell, 2012).”

“…of politics and political change, scholars often focus on topics such as the changes to mechanisms of participation, development of sense of collective identity, creation of community, weakening of “preference falsification,” and framing of political discourse (Farrell, 2012; Garrett, 2006).”

“For well over a decade, research has been assessing the impact of these changes on politics and what it means for democracy (see, for example, Farrell, 2012).”

“For years, scholars have debated the Internet’s impact on politics and what it means for democracy (van de Donk et al. 2004; Benkler 2006; Sunstein 2007; for a current review see Farrell 2012).”

“…of the bias, which is likely to affect the answers to questions of increasing interest for social scientists – for instance, how online networks co-evolve with offline political events and behaviour, including mass mobilisations that emerge with the support of social media (Farell, 2012).”

“Of particular concern is whether online populations increasingly sort into homogeneous “echo chambers”, and whether social media platforms tend to shift users towards ideological extremes [7, 8, 9].”

“Homophily can also manifest indirectly through individuals’ media consumption patterns whereby like-minded people orbit around the same information source or agenda (Farrell, 2012).”

“Farrell (2012) highlighted three causal mechanisms that shape the relationship of the Internet and politics: declining transaction costs for organizing collective action, homophilous sorting, and preference falsification.”

“10 Most scholarship finds that the internet increases political awareness (e.g. Boulianne 2009; Farrell 2012; Gil de Zu´n˜iga, Puig-I-Abril and Rojas 2009), but see Sunstein (2002) for a dissenting view.”

“By providing a technological solution to the costs of directing, aggregating, and disseminating discourse, social media might contribute to political deliberations that are more participatory, support larger exchanges of better information, and promote greater mobilization of political action [3].”

“9 Farrell (2012).”

“Alternatively, some contemporary social scientists understand online activity (from e-mail to social networking) only as a variable affecting off-line participation in politics or organizations (Earl & Kimport, 2011; Farrell, 2012; Gibson, Römmele, & Ward, 2004; Wellman, Haase, Witte, & Hampton, 2001).”

“Internet use has become integrated into the daily lives of many people, whose online activities may be under ‘‘24/7’’ surveillance (Andrejevic, 2007; Farrell, 2012).”

“…inadvertent exposure (e.g. Brundidge, 2010); research showing the extent of homophily in social media networks (e.g. Colleoni, Rozza, & Adam, 2014; Levi, 2012) also appears alongside research showing the positive relationship between social media use and network diversity (e.g. Kim, Hsu, & Gil de…”

“As noted, the expectations discussed in the literature (e.g., Farrell, 2012; Ohme et al., 2018) suggest that if a statistically significant distinction was apparent in the early years of the sample, it would be due to a weaker relationship between PE and OnPP than between PE and OffPP – but that…”

“Farrell (2012) argues that internet technologies lower communication costs, making it easier for political groups to recruit or to organise themselves (campaigns, issue advocacy, protests, voting).”

“Moreover, the divisions between the more politically engaged users may be greater than among those less involved (Farrell, 2012).”

“The recent democratic movements in the Middle East and North Africa have re-energised the longstanding debate over the democratic potential of the Internet in an authoritarian environment (Farrell, 2012; Howard and Muzammil, 2011; Lynch, 2011; Tufekci and Wilson, 2012).”

“This is evidenced with regard to online deliberations in general (Farrell, 2012; Freelon, 2015) as well as with regard to science- and climate change-related deliberations more specifically (Brossard & Scheufele, 2013; O’Neill & Boykoff, 2011; Stilgoe, Lock, & Wilsdon, 2014).”

“We agree with Henry Farrell, who has argued in a review of this literature that ‘one should disaggregate [the Internet] into more discrete phenomena, allowing scholars to ask research questions that they have some hope, however faint, of answering’ (Farrell 2012, 36).”

“On the other hand, Farrell argues that even though research clearly supports the case that the Internet can bring like-minded people together, there is insufficient evidence to substantiate Sunstein’s hypothesis that cyberbalkanization causes opinion polarization (Farrell, 2012).”

“Cihangir (2013) demonstrates that attitudes toward honor-based behavioral codes do and can change with exposure to differing attitudes toward them; this change can occur through locating and interacting with new and likeminded individuals through social media (Farrell, 2012).”

“Repression and strategies for responding to repression in the online environment In recent years, Internet and online political participation has attracted significant academic attention, particularly with regard to its effect on democratization in repressive contexts (Farrell, 2012).”

“…agenda or orchestrate sustainable action, that has prompted less optimistic scholars to criticize such online events as mere cacophony and a short-lived venting of emotions in a fragmented online sphere that do not generate ‘real offline events’ (Farrell, 2012; Gladwell, 2010; Leibold, 2012).”

“Social media platforms like Twitter lower the transaction costs for communication and collective action, ease the dissemination of information to potential collaborators, and provide enough anonymity to allow people to express opinions they might otherwise suppress (Farrell, 2012).”

“Instead, we should consider algorithms as a collection of mechanisms that can be disentangled and studied separately, much like how we have learned to approach “the internet” not as a monolithic entity but as a bundle of mechanisms (Farrell, 2012).”

“SNSs are expected to promote political participation, which has declined worldwide in modern societies (Putnam, 2000), because SNSs have technological features cultivating social interactions and networks (Baym, 2010; Farrell, 2012).”

“known (Farrell, 2012; Lynch, 2011), holds potential for challenging authoritarian rule.”

“Interest in the ways digital, social, and mobile media are shaping political communication, and transforming public spheres has grown steadily over the past decade (Dahlgren, 2005; Farrell, 2012; Papacharissi, 2002).”

“On the one hand, it can facilitate informational engagement through the lower cost of communication, because users can devote less time and effort to seeking specific information (Farrell, 2012).”

“how and why social media facilitate collective action and political uprisings (Andersen, 2011; Farell, 2012).”

“comparative institutions framework, we seek to contribute to the debate on the implications of the internet on politics (Farrell, 2012).”

“In recent years, the Internet has become an indispensible tool for citizens of most nations, especially by providing them with new means for political and civic participation (Farrell, 2012; Fox & Ramos, 2012).”

“In mobilizing diverse publics, social media can be considered important mostly because it lowers the costs of participation and mobilization (Farrell, 2012; Garrett, 2006).”

“In recent years, online activism has attracted significant academic attention, particularly with regards to its impact on political protests and social movements in repressive contexts (Farrell, 2012).”

“Social media have enhanced the ability of everyday people to express themselves politically (Allen & Light, 2015; Boulianne, 2015; Gil de Zúñiga, Molyneux, & Zheng, 2014;; Farrell, 2012).”

“The existing literature on the nexus between the state and cyberspace has largely focused on the variety of mechanisms through which the state controls the internet (Deibert 2015; Deibert et al. 2012; Diamond and Plattner 2012; Farrell 2012; Hellmeier 2016).”

“One of the key research questions of online politics is whether Internet usage favors established/dominant or peripheral/marginal parties and candidates (Farrell, 2012).”

“The move toward the ‘‘social’’ Internet sparked much of the contemporary research on social media and contentious politics, not least owing to events surrounding the Arab Spring (Farrell, 2012).”

“Farrell 2012.”

“The interactivity inherent in the internet has been viewed as a key characteristic that can enhance political knowledge and political engagement generally (for recent reviews, see Bakker and de Vreese 2011; Bimber 2012; Farrell 2012).”

“2 It is inappropriate to study ICTs in isolation without considering its relationship to the realities of politics (Farrell, 2012).”

“…several studies which have investigated the effects of ICT, especially the Internet, on the political dimension of society (e.g. Boehlert, 2009; Chadwick, 2006; Coleman and Blumler, 2009; Farrell, 2012; Rash, 1997; Oates et al., 2006), few studies have explored the effects on political empowerment.”

“6 If incidental information sparks interest in an issue, the Internet facilitates engagement by allowing individuals to easily access additional information, find like-minded individuals, join in online debate, and engage in low-cost participatory activities such signing an online petition (Carlisle and Patton, 2013;…”

“Because the Internet often allows for a wider range of ideas than has previously existed in these legacy media (print and broadcast; for example, Farrell, 2012; Norris, 2003; Tang & Sampson, 2012; Vartanova, 2015), it diffuses an even broader, more diverse range of information that citizens can…”

“The internet has drastically reduced the costs of political organizing and collective action of all kinds (Farrell 2012).”

“The Internet is believed to play an important role in many democratization events, from the color revolutions to the Arab Spring (Diamond, 2010; Farrell, 2012; Lynch, 2011).”

“With increasing internet and cell phone coverage (Pew Research Center 2015), voters increasingly use other platforms and the political campaigns have traveled with them (Farrell 2012, 37).”

“These data, however, have potential problems with omitted variable bias and endogenous causal relationships (see Farrell, 2012, for a related critique).”