ABSTRACT
On any given day, 24 million Americans go to the Internet to look for political news or information. In 2004, about 97 million Americans visited government websites, 87 million got political news and updates on the presidential campaign, 38 million e-mailed government officials to try to influence policy decisions and 36 million became members of online support groups (Pew, 2005a). These numbers indicate that the world wide web has become an important channel for political communication and has the potential to enhance citizen involvement and participation, as many scholars have predicted (Corrado & Firestone, 1996; Milbank, 1999). The simplification of online-publishing technology and software allows citizens to become active contributors to the online political dialogue. On an average day, about 5 million Americans take advantage of content-creating applications and post their materials online (Pew, 2005a).
