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Marc Hooghe 2010
Sara Vissers
Dietlind Stolle
Valérie-Anne Mahéo
The Potential of Internet Mobilization. An Experimental Study
on the Effect of Internet and Face-to-Face Mobilization
Efforts.
Political Communication, 28, 2010, accepted
© Routledge, Philadelphia, 2010.
For the full version of this article, please refer to:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713774515
Abstract
In recent years, voluntary associations and political organizations have increasingly relied
on Internet-based mobilization campaigns, replacing traditional forms of face-to-face
recruitment and mobilization. Within the literature one can observe an intensive debate
about the possible consequences of this transition. Most importantly, the question is
whether political mobilization through the Internet is just as effective as mobilization in a
face-to-face setting. In this article, we report on a mobilization experiment using both
traditional (face-to-face) and modern (website) incentives for mobilization. The
experiment was conducted among undergraduate students in Belgium and Canada and
included a test of medium-term mobilization effects. Results suggest that the Internet is
successful in transferring knowledge and raising issue salience among respondents, but
both experimental manipulations did not lead to significant behavioral changes. We do
not find any indication that among this experimental sample Internet-based mobilization
would be less effective than traditional face-to-face forms of mobilization.