Participation in political debate and deliberation is critical to democracy. Browsing political material is a direct way of acquiring knowledge about civic activities, the operations of government, and the issues of the day. This project examines a fast growing, but little understood new type of political participation: online information seeking, deliberation and decision making in the context of Web 2.0 technologies. The research includes three intertwined threads of study: (a) user-centered design of enhancements to a search/browse tool and a cross-application, user-generated interlinkage browser; (b) laboratory studies of how potential voters browse and make decisions in social computing environments; and (c) longitudinal observation of users of novel, socially-enabled political search/browse tools through at least three U.S. election cycles.
Intellectual Merit: The central research question is how exposure to and participation in social networking activities influences information seeking and decision making in politics. An important practical outcome will be search/browse tools for civic participation and political discourse that are integrated with the social networking environments that many people now use every day. The research will contribute to theories of deliberation in the domain of digital politics and to the design of tools for exposing and navigating the structure of online political dialog.
Broader Impacts: Tools and theory developed from this project will provide contexts that broaden opportunities for participation in civic life in the 21st century, thereby helping to bridge the digital divide. The work will also benefit education through the training of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers.
