Abstract
Abstract. Today, citizens have the possibility to use many different types of news media and participate politically in various ways. This study examines how use of different news types (hard and soft TV news as well as printed and online versions of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers) indirectly affects changes in offline and online political participation through current affairs knowledge and internal efficacy during nonelection and election time. We use a four-wave national panel survey from Denmark (N = 2,649) and show that use of hard TV news and broadsheets as well as online tabloids positively affects changes in both offline and online political participation through current affairs knowledge and internal efficacy. Use of soft TV news and printed tabloids has a negative indirect effect. These results are more pronounced for online political participation and during election time. However, use of soft TV news also has a positive direct effect on changes in political participation, which suggests a positive impact via other processes.
Highlights
Today, citizens have the possibility to use many different types of news media and participate politically in various ways
This study has examined how use of different news types indirectly affects offline and online political participation through current affairs knowledge and internal efficacy during nonelection and election time
Our results show that knowledge and efficacy are important mediators between media use and political participation
Summary
Citizens have the possibility to use many different types of news media and participate politically in various ways. This study examines how use of different news types (hard and soft TV news as well as printed and online versions of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers) indirectly affects changes in offline and online political participation through current affairs knowledge and internal efficacy during nonelection and election time. The media can in general be expected to have an indirect effect on political participation through knowledge and efficacy, with knowledge preconditioning efficacy An examination of such underlying psychological processes is important if we want a deeper understanding of media and politics in our age of information (e.g., Kinder, 2003). This study contributes to our knowledge about the recent developments in the media environment and different forms of political participation by examining how use of different news types affects changes in offline and online political participation indirectly through knowledge and efficacy during nonelection and election time. Effects of media use on political participation can be negative, for example, when people are left inactive in front
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