跨越参与鸿沟:数字不平等下的在线政治参与

Bridging the Participation Divide: Online Political Participation in the Context of Digital Inequality

从数字不平等的视角出发,论文考察了互联网使用差异与在线政治参与之间的内在联系,即试图分析不同社会经济地位人群由于各自偏好的网络使用类型,是否进一步强化了"参与鸿沟"。文章利用2011—2012年对10个城市在职网民的调查数据,结合了社会经济地位和使用心理以及行为变量的分析,结果表明,虽然互联网使用鸿沟明显存在,但是以娱乐互动为中介的互联网使用能够促进低教育人群的政治表达,而且独立于社会阶层影响的娱乐互动效能也能够增强互联网使用者进一步去获取政治信息的行为。但是高社会阶层在网络政治参与中信息和互动的双重优势,潜在地可能给予他们在公共议题上的引导性权力。最后,论文对中国互联网实践中这种网络政治生态及其政策内涵进行了讨论。

From the perspective of digital inequality,this article analyses the intrinsic relation between internet usage and online political participation and explore empirically whether socioeconomic status and different preferences of Internet usage widen the'participation gap'further. Using data from a quota sample of on-the-job netizens in ten Chinese urban areas and combining their internet usage data with their socio-economic background data,the results of the analysis show that,although internet usage divide still exists,online entertainment and social interaction may promote more active online participation and give the less educated more opportunities of political expression. In addition,the efficiency of online entertainment and social interaction independent of social class inspires internet users to obtain more political information. However,internet users with a higher socio-economic status are still advantaged in leading the discussion of public issues. Finally,this article discusses the online political ecology and social implications of these findings in China.