ABSTRACT
The goal of this chapter has been to shed light on some of the challenges that await researchers while explicating variables that are unique to Web-based communication, and demonstrate ways to overcome them without having to forego either traditional communication models or the rich explication paradigms established by communication scholars. Driven by a larger question about the influence of the Internet on democracy, political communication scholars have sought to measure the relative role of this medium in determining such outcome variables as deliberation and voting decision. The chapter explores the possibility of creating a scale that can capture the psychological realizations of specific interactive affordances in the minds of the user. It also explains interactivity-related heuristics identified in the Modality, Agency, Interactivity, and Navigability (MAIN) model, along with examples of how these heuristics can be operationalized in the context of political interactivity.
