Online participation in Italy: contextual influences and political opportunities

This chapter focuses on the relationship between political context and online participation in Italy. It offers an empirical analysis of the variables affecting various types of online participation among Italians (visiting the website of a candidate or party, signing an online petition, participating in an offline event after receiving an online invitation, using a forum, a blog or a social networking website to express political viewpoints) and shows that these behaviors are affected by different types of socio-demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral characteristics. It also shows that citizens who identify with the left are more likely to engage in various types of online participation, which can be explained by the country's political and contextual conditions, particularly, the fact that the dominance of television by the center-right coalition may have motivated progressive supporters to search for alternative channels of political information and engagement than the mainstream media.