Smartphones and their Increased Importance in U.S. Presidential Elections

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Author(s): Ramona Sue McNeal (University of Northern Iowa, USA), Mary Schmeida (Kent State University, USA)and Lisa Dotterweich Bryan (Walden University, USA)
Copyright: 2017
Pages: 21
Source title: Handbook of Research on Citizen Engagement and Public Participation in the Era of New Media
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Marco Adria (University of Alberta, Canada)and Yuping Mao (California State University Long Beach, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1081-9.ch016

Keywords: Business Science Reference / Digital Communications / Government and Law / Media & Communications

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Abstract

Early researchers had predicted that the Internet might help to encourage political participation through its ability to make political information more accessible. Unfortunately, disparities in Internet access made it unlikely that the Internet would have much of an impact on voter turnout. Telecommunication technology has evolved and among these new advances is smartphones, which help to increase Internet access. The purpose of this chapter is to examine this argument by exploring the relationship between smartphone ownership and voting. This topic is explored using multivariate regression analysis and individual level data from the 2012 American National Election Studies. Findings suggest that smartphones are helping to increase voter turnout through their ability to facilitate other online activities such as visiting candidate websites and taking part in political discussion through social networking sites.

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Smartphones and their Increased Importance in U.S. Presidential Elections

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