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Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science and Research Fellow at the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO), University of California, Irvine, and Visiting Scholar at the UOC’s research institute (IN3), Michael Jensen, is to offer a research seminar entitled The Internet and Indifference: Online Political Participation in the United States and Spain on Wednesday 17 June. The session is to take place in the IN3 building in Castelldefels from 10am to noon.
In this seminar, Professor Jensen is to present research that examines the relationship between political alienation and political participation offline and online. It considers the relationship between attitudes of low political support and disaffection and the propensity to participate politically between offline and different online environments to see how the environment impacts participation. The data analysis is based on two nation-wide surveys conducted in the United States and Spain. The conclusions of the study challenge the idea that political alienation is atrophying political participation. In addition, it provides support for the contention many who otherwise find themselves alienated in traditional political environments may be using the Internet and especially Web 2.0 environments to participate politically. Evidence of this trend is particularly emergent amongst younger cohorts in Spain whose online activity mirrors that of their internaut counterparts in the United States.
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