(Cognitive) mobilization and political blogs

Abstract

The literature has suggested many ways in which developing user commitment can benefit political bloggers. Existing models are based on generating attachment, satisfaction, and trust, but it is worth considering whether the relationships between these factors remain unchanged regardless of the other media used by blog visitors. In other words, our aim is to determine whether the fact that a blog visitor who reads print media and watches TV has a strong impact on developing commitment as it does on voting intention, both for the blogger and for the party he/she belongs to. The results we have obtained, in keeping with mobilization theory, suggest that access to the media leads to political mobilization rather than to the negative effects suggested by cognitive mobilization theory, or what is referred to as ''video malaise''. To be more specific, access to TV enhances the development of commitment, whereas reading print media leads to that commitment having a greater impact on attitudinal and behavioral variables.