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Political communication researchers commonly use one of two strategies to measure online network diversity: a "subjective" approach tapping participants' impressions of the diversity in their networks, or a "structural" approach that asks about the socioeconomic position of individuals within their networks. While these measures are largely treated as functional equivalents in research about information technology and politics, we demonstrate that the two measures are only moderately correlated, and there are systematic differences in the reliability and validity of the two measures. We conclude that the structural measure is the better choice for most studies, although the subjective measure may be more appropriate in some cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures of news exposure are common in research that tries to explain political knowledge, political engagement, opinion formation and, more generally, media effects. Much of that research employs self-reported measures obtained with surveys, known to suffer from accuracy problems. Observational measures, however, also suffer from limitations derived from data collection and instrumentation. Here we offer new comparative evidence on the nature of those problems. We show that commonly used self-report measures of digital news consumption are problematic for three reasons: they only pay attention to a small fraction of all available sources; they underestimate audience share; and they distort the relative position of news sites in visibility rankings. Measurement problems, however, also exist in observational studies, especially when mobile access is excluded from data collection. Our analyses quantify the magnitude of these problems, offering unprecedented comparative evidence of online news consumption that spans nine countries and a period of five years. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research on news exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public discourse and deliberation are key to developing socially responsible and acceptable human gene editing research and applications. Researchers have raised concerns, however, that discourse about heritable gene edits, especially for non-therapeutic (or enhancement) purposes, might negatively bias public opinion of applications, including non-heritable edits to cure or prevent disease. Yet limited research exists examining how information about different gene editing applications elicits different perceptions of the technology. Using a U.S.-representative sample and survey-embedded experiment, we tested how exposure to information about different types of edits affects support and perceptions of benefits, risks, and moral acceptability of human gene editing. We randomly assigned respondents to a control or to an experimental condition in which they read information about one of four broad types of potential applications: (1) heritable edits for enhancement; (2) heritable edits for therapy; (3) non-heritable edits for enhancement; (4) non-heritable edits for therapy. Respondents then answered questions tapping multiple dimensions of support for and risk/benefit perceptions of human gene editing. Our results indicate partial evidence that exposure to information about heritable and/or enhancement edits colors perceptions of human gene editing more broadly but also that support for therapeutic edits is robust. Participants who read information about therapy edits perceived human gene editing in general more favorably in terms of benefits, risks, and moral acceptability than did participants who read about enhancements. Exposure to information about therapy versus enhancement edits, however, did not significantly influence support for therapy edits in particular. Heritability of edits had significant influence only on perceived risk, with heritable edits triggering higher risk perceptions. Interestingly, heritability seems to primarily affect views of risk of gene editing but not views of benefits, moral acceptability, or levels of support. We did not find differing effects depending on whether heritable edits were for therapy or enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines human- and computer-mediated content analysis to advance the understanding of how far-right parties are using new media to mobilize their supporters in the transitioning Ukrainian democracy. This study's theoretical approach employs the framework of connective action logic; results suggest that young and challenger parties are more adoptive of this logic, and provide opportunities for personalized engagement to their supporters. Moreover, use of interactive technologies by the studied parties also goes hand in hand with a smaller proportion of opinionated messages in their Twitter network, in spite of the inherent polarizing nature of these parties. Implications of these findings for research on future political campaigns conclude this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors envision a more durable and portable model of scholarship on public engagement with science through partnerships between rhetoricians of science and quantitative social scientists. The authors consider a number of barriers and limitations that make such partnerships difficult, with an eye toward discovering ways that researchers may overcome them. The authors conclude by articulating guidelines for reciprocal transdisciplinary work as well as specific recommended practices for such collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncivil comments following online news articles about issues of science and technology have been shown to lead to biased interpretations of the news content itself. Using an experiment embedded in a nationally representative survey, we provide evidence that cues about comment moderation ‒ even without any change in the comments themselves ‒ have the potential to alleviate this so-called nasty effect. Participants exposed to uncivil comments that appear in a moderated environment were less likely to perceive bias in the news article itself. Importantly, perceptions of bias among respondents exposed to the uncivil, moderated stimulus were comparable to those of respondents who viewed both moderated and unmoderated civil comments. Our results suggest that visible cues about comment moderation are a potentially valuable endeavor for news organizations, especially in an age of declining profit margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study demonstrates a post-hoc segmentation that is effective in creating distinct and robust segments of interest for researchers and practitioners in science communication. We use agglomerative hierarchical clustering to classify survey respondents based on answers to a short, five-item battery of questions drawn from variables that are frequently used in science communication. Resulting segments demonstrate strong differences in regards to demographics, issue-specific science knowledge, attention to media, sentiment toward media, and social networking site use. We assess the utility of the segments through a series of regression analyses in order to determine differences among segments with regards to intent to seek information about three science issues: fracking, nanotechnology, and synthetic biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of digital democracy share enthusiasm about the potential the Internet provides for democratic communication among citizens. Many applaud the prospect of an expanded, digital, public sphere; others are more cautious about whether the Internet may foster deliberative democracy. We attempt to provide a third alternative view by (1) focusing on everyday political talk in nonpolitical online forums and (2) expanding research beyond a singular deliberative model to attend to multiple frameworks for democratic discussion online. In this paper, we examine online political discussion of six globally prominent political issues in two transnational cricket forums. Our findings suggest that deliberative discussion coexists with liberal individualist and communitarian forms of communication in online sports forums. We discuss the implications of our findings for the future of mediated political discussion research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent technological developments have created novel opportunities for analyzing and identifying patterns in large volumes of digital content. However, many content analysis tools require researchers to choose between the validity of human-based coding and the ability to analyze large volumes of content through computer-based techniques. This study argues for the use of supervised content analysis tools that capitalize on the strengths of human- and computer-based coding for assessing opinion expression. We begin by outlining the key methodological issues surrounding content analysis as performed by human coders and existing computational algorithms. After reviewing the most popular analytic approaches, we introduce an alternative, hybrid method that is aimed at improving reliability, validity, and efficiency when analyzing social media content. To demonstrate the usefulness of this method, we track nuclear energy- and nanotechnology-related opinion expression on Twitter surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi accident to examine the extent to which the volume and tone of tweets shift in directions consistent with the expected external influence of the event. Our analysis revealed substantial shifts in both the volume and tone of nuclear power-related tweets that were consistent with our expectations following the disaster event. Conversely, there was decidedly more stability in the volume and tone of tweets for our comparison issue. These analyses provide an empirical demonstration of how the presented hybrid method can analyze defined communication sentiment and topics from large-scale social media data sets. The implications for communication scholars are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With electoral politics no longer organised by social class, politicians increasingly seek to relate to a broad spectrum of citizens and part of their relatability is conjured through more casual, informal performances aimed at cultivating authenticity. The various platforms of social media promote forms of authentic communication by blurring the public/private divide, creating ‘spontaneous’ and instant access to ‘real life’. This article seeks to investigate the informalisation thesis by applying it to data from young people aged 16–21 years in Australia, the UK and the USA, asked about the way politicians and celebrities use social media. Findings reveal respondents’ desire for more authentic and accessible politicians, but this was in direct tension with traditional views and expectations of politicians needing to be professional, informed and worthy of respect. Informalisation amongst politicians is evident and welcomed by young citizens but persistent traditional views means it also threatens their credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary research on young people and politics portrays their political engagement as: individualised not collectivist; issue-driven not ideology-driven and postmaterialist instead of materialist. This shift towards ‘lifestyle politics’ is assumed to be universal among young people, rather than shaped by traditional social cleavages and structures. This paper investigates these assumptions and asks whether young people's experience of national economic austerity and increasing material inequality shapes the everyday political issues they identify with, and how they understand inequality and the distribution of resources in their societies. The analysis is based on responses to an open-ended question on key political issues of importance, in surveys of representative samples of 1200 young people aged 16–29 in 3 countries: Australia, the UK and the USA. Afterwards, we conducted online discussion groups with 107 young people, in which they were asked to discuss changes in the nature of equality in their societies. The findings show that there is a complex interdependence between individualised, everyday understandings of economic changeandan identity-based politics of equal rights. However, there are nuanced differences in understanding inequality, dependent on young people's national location and socioeconomic background. The implications these findings have for young people's future political engagement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media is pervasive in the lives of young people, and this paper critically analyses how politically engaged young people integrate social media use into their existing organisations and political communications. This qualitative research project studied how young people from a broad range of existing political and civic groups use social media for sharing information, mobilisation and, increasingly, as a means to redefine political action and political spaces. Twelve in-person focus groups were conducted in Australia, the USA and the UK with matched affinity groups based on university campuses. The groups were of four types: party political group, issue-based group, identity-based group and social group. Our focus group findings suggest that this in-depth approach to understanding young people's political engagement reveals important group-based differences emerging in young people's citizenship norms: between the dutiful allegiance to formal politics and a more personalised, self-actualising preference for online, discursive forms of political engagement and organising. The ways in which political information is broadcast, shared and talked about on social media by engaged young people demonstrate the importance of communicative forms of action for the future of political engagement and connective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments suggest a strong relationship between social media use and political engagement and raise questions about the potential for social media to help stem or even reverse patterns of political inequality that have troubled scholars for years. In this paper, we articulate a model of social media and political engagement among young people, and test it using data from representative samples of young people in Australia, the USA, and the UK. Our results suggest a strong, positive relationship between social media use and political engagement among young people across all three countries, and provide additional insights regarding the role played by social media use in the processes by which young people become politically engaged. Notably, our results also provide reasons to be optimistic concerning the overall influence of this popular new form of digital media on longstanding patterns of political inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the political engagement as expressions of political norms, political socialization, and impact of social media on the public orientation of young people.

This study focuses on the extent to which U.S. campaigns are adapting traditional campaign strategies to the Web and/or developing innovative strategies that employ some of the particular affordances of Web technologies and on how well campaign characteristics, such as incumbency and major party affiliation, and/or race characteristics, such as statewide office and competitiveness, explain the level of a campaign's adaptation of or innovation with Web technologies. Adapting traditional campaigning proved to be far more common than developing innovative strategies. The findings suggest that additional aspects of campaigns' structure and organizational processes need to be studied in order to understand campaigns' Web technology adoption strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, candidates and other political actors have dramatically increased their presence and activities online. Although the notion of these activities reaching beyond a limited set of early-adopters is relatively new, younger citizens have long been at the forefront of new developments on the web and continue to make up a substantial proportion of those seeking political information online. Given longstanding concern over levels of civic and political engagement among young people, questions concerning what young people seeking information and opportunities for political involvement online might find there are particularly relevant. In particular, we explore political websites that are directly targeted at younger voters (e.g. Rock the Vote and similar sites), websites produced by candidates and political parties, and possible linkages between these two web spheres. Based on content and hyperlink analyses spanning the 2002 and 2004 US election cycles, we find a complex evolution of the online political information environment offered to youth. Although the youth engagement web sphere experienced dramatic growth during this time period, our data also identify a reluctance of many mainstream political actors to speak directly to young people through the web, and a surprising underdevelopment of linkages between youth politics websites and the wider web of political information online. We conclude by considering the implications of these patterns for future research on the role of new media in processes of political communication and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the public discourse associated with the 1997 Teamsters strike against the United Parcel Service in the United States. Role of political issues on the formation of public opinion; Origins of public opinion; Reliance of the public for political information on the mass media.

Focuses on the influence of the opinion of social and political elites on the opinion formation and policy evaluations of the public in the United States. Reliance on the credible sources of information for the formation of political judgment; Characteristics of social elites; Consideration of racial status as an important source cue.