the internet and social media have played a significant role in contemporarypolitical sphere of indonesia. in particular, they have been widely usedfor political activism and discussion; but whether the discussions areconstructive is another issue. constructive political discussion requiresseveral preconditions; one of the most important requirements is rationalreasoning. citizens must be equip...

This case study examines how traditional and Internet news use, as well as face-to-face and online political discussion, contributed to political participation during the period leading up to the Iraq War. A Web-based survey of political dissenters (N=307) conducted at the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq provides the data used to examine the relationships among informational media use, o...

Though political theorists have emphasized the importance of political discussion in non-political spaces, past study of online political discussion has focused on primarily political websites. Using a random sample from Blogger.com, we find that 25% of all political posts are from blogs that post about politics less than 20% of the time, because the vast majority of blogs post about politics s...

The Internet and social media have played a significant role in contemporarypolitical sphere of Indonesia. In particular, they have been widely usedfor political activism and discussion; but whether the discussions areconstructive is another issue. Constructive political discussion requiresseveral preconditions; one of the most important requirements is rationalreasoning. Citizens must be equip...

The extension and transformation of political participation is dependent on widespread deliberation supported by information and communication technologies. The most commonly found examples of these eParticipation systems are political discussion forums. Though much of the discussion of these technologies is conducted in the eGovernment and (particularly) the eDemocracy literature, political di...

Humans are a coalitional, parochial species. Yet, extreme actions of solidarity are sometimes taken for distant or unrelated groups. What motivates people to become solidary with groups to which they do not belong originally? Here, we demonstrate that such distant solidarity can occur when the perceived treatment of an out-group clashes with one's political beliefs (e.g., for Leftists, oppressi...