IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jftint/v5y2013i4p568-579d30420.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Citizen as Issue Specialists in a Changing Media Environment

Author

Listed:
  • S. Mo Jang

    (Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, 105 S. State St. RM 5348, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

  • Yong Jin Park

    (Department of Strategic, Legal, Management Communications, School of Communications, Howard University, 13306 Burkitts Road, Fairfax, VA 22033, USA)

Abstract

Although recent research suggests that the selective nature of new media helps foster issue specialists, little empirical evidence has been documented, mostly due to theoretical and methodological limitations. Extending the concept of issue publics, the present study proposes a method to estimate the degree to which an individual is a specialist- or a generalist-type citizen. Applying the method to the 2008 American National Election Studies data, the study reveals various characteristics of specialists and generalists. The results indicate that specialist-type citizens are positively associated with online news use, but negatively associated with conventional news media, such as television, newspaper, and radio. The implications of the growth of specialists as well as the validity of the proposed method are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Mo Jang & Yong Jin Park, 2013. "The Citizen as Issue Specialists in a Changing Media Environment," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-12, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:5:y:2013:i:4:p:568-579:d:30420
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/4/568/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/5/4/568/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    2. Ruut Veenhoven, 2005. "Inequality Of Happiness in Nations," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 351-355, December.
    3. Ruut Veenhoven, 2005. "Return of Inequality in Modern Society? Test by Dispersion of Life-Satisfaction Across Time and Nations," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 457-487, December.
    4. Robinson, Michael J., 1976. "Public Affairs Television and the Growth of Political Malaise: The Case of “The Selling of the Pentagon”," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 409-432, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chun-Hung A. Lin & Suchandra Lahiri & Ching-Po Hsu, 2017. "Happiness and Globalization: A Spatial Econometric Approach," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1841-1857, December.
    2. Michal Brzezinski, 2019. "Diagnosing Unhappiness Dynamics: Evidence from Poland and Russia," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(7), pages 2291-2327, October.
    3. Néstor Gandelman & Rafael Porzecanski, 2013. "Happiness Inequality: How Much is Reasonable?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 257-269, January.
    4. Yew‐Kwang Ng, 2008. "Happiness Studies: Ways to Improve Comparability and Some Public Policy Implications," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 84(265), pages 253-266, June.
    5. Umakrishnan Kollamparambil, 2020. "Happiness, Happiness Inequality and Income Dynamics in South Africa," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 201-222, January.
    6. Umakrishnan Kollamparambil, 2021. "Socio-Economic Inequality of Wellbeing: A Comparison of Switzerland and South Africa," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 555-574, February.
    7. Andrew E. Clark & Sarah Flèche & Claudia Senik, 2012. "The Great Happiness Moderation," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 468, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    8. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn & Joan Maya Mazelis, 2017. "More Unequal in Income, More Unequal in Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 953-975, July.
    9. Oliver Lipps & Daniel Oesch, 2017. "The Working Class Left Behind? The Class Gap in Life Satisfaction in Germany and Switzerland over the Last Decades," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 940, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    10. Pascarn R. Dickinson & Philip S. Morrison, 2022. "Aversion to Local Wellbeing Inequality is Moderated by Social Engagement and Sense of Community," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 907-926, February.
    11. Yasar, Rusen, 2018. "Subjective well-being and income: A compromise between Easterlin paradox and its critiques," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 12, pages 1-23.
    12. Felix, Reto & Hinsch, Chris & Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & Schlegelmilch, Bodo B., 2018. "Religiousness and environmental concern: A multilevel and multi-country analysis of the role of life satisfaction and indulgence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 304-312.
    13. Indranil Dutta & James Foster, 2013. "Inequality of Happiness in the U.S.: 1972–2010," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59(3), pages 393-415, September.
    14. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2014. "‘Freedom From’ and ‘Freedom To’ Across Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 1009-1029, September.
    15. Ram, Rati, 2017. "Kuznets curve in happiness: A cross-country exploration," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 272-278.
    16. T. Lakshmanasamy & K. Maya, 2020. "The Effect of Income Inequality on Happiness Inequality in India: A Recentered Influence Function Regression Estimation and Life Satisfaction Inequality Decomposition," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 161-181, August.
    17. Arletta Isaeva & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2021. "Correlates of Life Satisfaction Inequality in Russia," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(5), pages 2251-2269, October.
    18. Bomi Choi & Hey Jung Jun, 2022. "The Buffering Effects of Social Capital on Inequalities in Subjective Well-Being Among Older People," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 565-583, April.
    19. Yasar, Rusen, 2017. "Subjective well-being and income: A compromise between Easterlin paradox and its critiques," Economics Discussion Papers 2017-113, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Kai Liu & Xianghong Wang, 2017. "Relative Income and Income Satisfaction: An Experimental Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 395-409, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:5:y:2013:i:4:p:568-579:d:30420. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.