RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN NET ACTIVISM? QUANTIATIVE ANALYSIS OF BLACK POLITICAL ACTION ONLINE

Previous work suggests that traditional political behavior diverges as a consequence of race within the US context. This study expands upon past findings by analyzing whether traditionally understood causes of such differences are influential in online political behavior as well.
Individuals may point to the digital divide as determinative in the differences in internet behavior, using the argument that varying levels of SES lead to differences in internet access and social capital; however, Jackson (2009) finds that this is not the case. Analysis of the motivational, affective, and cognitive attitudes with respect to the internet yields a number of differences independent of factors that produce the digital divide, namely access to the internet. For instance, Jackson finds that blacks use email at a greater rate than whites and are more likely to use the web to search for personally relevant information. This effect brings the apparent demographic preponderance of Whites on the internet into question, perhaps qualifying this understanding.
Moreover, socioeconomic status and education have traditionally defined the differences in political behavior among different racial groups within social science discourse (Verba and Nie 1972; Wolfinger and Rosenstone 1980; Verba, Scholzman, and Brady 1995). This is conceptually sound, but SES impacts voting behavior in different ways for Blacks and Whites (Liu et al. 2009), suggesting that different social and political processes are operating for the two groups. The interplay of these social and technological factors brings the question of political behavior online into question, prompting the present study.
In order to accomplish this goal, I analyzed the internet module of the GSS Survey from 2000. This year is convenient both because of data availability and the absence of any effects of the Obama presidency. I conducted logistic regression analyses of race variables on visiting political websites, and I controlled for a number of variables that are influential in political decision making. I found that African Americans were most likely to visit websites to obtain political information. This finding will aid in predicting political action within the net environment.