Why Do Candidates Use Online Media in Constituency Campaigning? An Application of the Theory of Planned behavior
Why Do Candidates Use Online Media in Constituency Campaigning? An Application of the Theory of Planned behavior
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为什么候选人在选区竞选中使用在线媒体？
DOI：
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发表时间：
2014
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Julia Metag
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Frank Marcinkowski;Julia Metag
摘要 竞选者越来越多地将网络视为候选人和政党与选民沟通的重要选举工具。然而，这种说法在多大程度上符合现实呢？有证据表明，媒介的重要性与其实际采用的程度之间存在着一定的差距。迄今为止，大多数关于网络活动驱动因素的研究都集中在决定个人使用媒介的环境因素和个人资源上。我们在此认为，此类模型在解释政治家对网络的使用情况时忽略了一个关键层——个人态度和对互联网作为竞选工具的价值的主观评估。更具体地说，通过应用计划行为理论，我们解释了德国州级选举中候选人之间的网络竞选活动模式。我们根据调查数据和对候选人网络使用情况的独立审核来测试我们的模型。我们的研究结果证实，使用网络营销活动的意图与实际采用之间存在很大差异。此外，该理论被确认为对确实发生的网络活动的有用解释，尽管该理论的各个组成部分的重要性有所不同。
ABSTRACT Campaigners are increasingly citing the Web as an important election tool for candidates and parties to communicate with voters; however, to what extent is this rhetoric matched to reality? Evidence suggests there is something of a gap in the importance attributed to the medium and the extent to which it is actually adopted. Most studies of the drivers of Web campaigning to date have focused on the environmental factors and personal resources that determine individuals’ use of the medium. We argue here that such models miss a key layer of explanation in accounting for web uptake by politicians—that of individual attitudes and subjective assessments of the value of the Internet as a campaign tool. More specifically, by applying the Theory of Planned Behavior, we account for patterns of Web campaign activity among candidates in a German state level election. We test our model on survey data and an independent audit of Web use by candidates. Our findings confirm that there is a large discrepancy between the intention to use Web campaigning and actual adoption. Furthermore, the theory is confirmed as a useful explanatory of the Web campaigning that does occur, although the individual components of the theory vary in importance.