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Online petitions have become a widespread vehicle for contemporary political participation. While research tends to focus on individual factors for potential petitioners that influence signing, less attention has been paid to the influence of the actual text of petitions. This paper uses data from an original web-based survey experiment in Australia and Germany to test the influence of content factors: narratives (i.e., stories based on individual experiences and emotions) and popularity cues (i.e., high numbers of signatures) across two issues: climate change and welfare policy. We find that narratives within petition texts involve readers through the mechanism of transportation and motivate them to sign petitions, as do popularity cues. The effects of narratives were found across both countries but tended to be stronger in Germany than in Australia. We argue that our novel framework can be used for future research on how the presentation of issues shape contemporary political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the everyday practice of online communication, we observe users deliberately reporting abusive content or opposing hate speech through counterspeech, while at the same time, online platforms are increasingly relying on and supporting this kind of user action to fight disruptive online behavior. We refer to this type of user engagement as online civic intervention (OCI) and regard it as a new form of user-based political participation in the digital sphere that contributes to an accessible and reasoned public discourse. Because OCI has received little scholarly attention thus far, this article conceptualizes low- and high-threshold types of OCI as different kinds of user responses to common disruptive online behavior such as hate speech or hostility toward the media. Against the background of participation research, we propose a theoretically grounded individual-level model that serves to explain OCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of ICTs in political participation has been a core topic in political communication research for about two decades. Numerous studies have tested whether the enthusiasm about the mobilizing impact of ICTs holds true. Most have been conducted in Western countries and, therefore, reflect a Western-centric understanding of politics and participation. Although these studies have provided insight into the potential of ICTs for established democracies, political and cultural contexts from developing world regions such as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have thus far been neglected. However, given the rapid dissemination of ICTs (e.g., mobile phones) and their innovative application in everyday life in developing countries, regions like SSA should be of particular interest for research in this field. This article aims to highlight the shortcomings of Western research and to recommend adjustments in future efforts to investigate effects of ICTs, including developing world regions, in order to develop a more robust empirical grounding for theories of participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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For some decades western institutions have shared an enormous enthusiasm for Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). Nevertheless, despite the field's ever-increasing importance, research on it remains fragmented and lacks a theoretical foundation. By establishing a link between ICT4D and Modernization theory as one of the major development models, this paper aims to add some theoretical reflections to the body of existing research. Initially, a literature review of the most significant authors of Modernization theory serves as a theoretical base. Subsequently, empirical findings are systematized and embedded in the theoretical framework. The leading question is, whether ICT4D is connected to Modernization theory's main lines of thought, both in theory and in the field. Modernization theory was chosen as a reference point, as even though it has frequently been marked as outdated, some argue that ICT4D has brought about its revival: Led by a technocratic mindset, actors in the field have indeed assumed ICTs to be context-free tools, which is one of the reasons why ICT4D has so far not been an unmitigated success. As there is a lack of systematic research on ICT4D, this paper is explorative in nature. It is certainly beyond the author's scope to make any definite statements on how development cooperation has hitherto handled ICT4D, as the field is too complex. Instead, light will be shed on some trends that can be identified in the field of ICT4D to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]