3. Method3.1. DataData for this stu

3. Method

3.1. Data

Data for this study were collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a survey conducted between November 20 and December 4, 2008, by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Using a random-digit sample of telephone numbers, the survey was conducted through telephone interviews with a sample of 2,254 respondents, 18 and older. The response rate of the survey was 23%. For data quality, we used listwise deletion, yielding a sample of 1041.

3.2. Measures

3.2.1. Blogging and SNS use

The independent variables of this study were blogging and SNS use. Based on the previous literature (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2009), blogging was measured by an additive index of four items, tapping into respondents’ blogging behaviors during the 2008 Presidential campaign period. The respondents were asked if they had received any news or information about the election from blogs that cover news, politics, or media; had read about someone else’s commentary or experiences with the campaign and political issues on a blog; had posted comments, queries or information about the campaign or the elections on their own blog or on the blogs of others; and had shared with others their experiences casting their ballot by commenting on someone else’s blog (α = .66, M = .77, SD = .99). 2

The use of SNS was measured by an additive index compiled from four items gathered by asking the respondents about their manner of use of SNSs. These items aim to tap into the political behaviors that people carry out on SNSs (e.g., Kushin and Yamamoto, 2010). Using the stem “Thinking about what you have done on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace,” participants were asked if they had gotten any campaign or candidate information from these sites, started or joined a political group or group supporting a cause on a social networking site, revealed on a social networking site which presidential candidate they had voted for, and discovered from the sites which presidential candidate their friends had voted for (α = .70, M = .96, SD = 1.21).

3.2.2. Online political participation

Based on previous studies (e.g., Jung et al., 2011, Kaufhold et al., 2010 and Valenzuela et al., 2012), online political participation was measured by political activity items which tapped into individuals’ political activities related to the campaign and the elections on the Internet, and an additive index was constructed by summing the scores from these items. Respondents were asked whether they had performed the following activities on the Internet in the past year: looked for more information online about candidates’ positions on the issues or voting records; shared photos, videos, or audio files online that related to the campaign or the elections; forwarded someone else’s political commentary or writing to others; forwarded someone else’s political audio or video recordings to others; and subscribed to receive campaign or political information through an RSS feed (α = .67, M = 1.44, SD = 1.38). 3