The Liberal Medium?: The Political Correlates of Web Use.

With over half of all households in the United States online, the Internet has become an essential enabling technology for social, economic, and political life. Scholars of the "digital divide" have focused on demographic groups that lag in their adoption of the Internet. Equally profound, but previously unrecognized, are disparities in usage between those with different political attitudes. This paper demonstrates that self-identified liberals are more likely to engage in capital-building activities online, and to seek out political information, news, and government Web sites. Liberals are more likely to believe that the Web plays an important role in forming their political attitudes, and to report that the Web has made them sign a petition or attend a political meeting. These findings problematize current conceptions of the digital divide, and raise important questions about the long-term political impact of the medium. Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]