How App Are People to Use Smartphones, Search Engines, and Social Media for News?: Examining Information Acquisition Tools and Their Influence on Political Knowledge and Voting

Abstract

The growing use of tablet and smartphone news applications, search engines, and online social media for political and news information deserves attention because of the political implications. Using data from a statewide Texas opt-in poll from February 2012, this study tests the direct versus the differential hypothesis for each of the information acquisition tools with respect to political knowledge and voting. Results indicate a direct effect for search engine use and political knowledge. Suggestions for future research are provided in light of limitations of the current study and the possibility that information acquisition tool use will continue to grow.

KEYWORDS:

• Applications
• information acquisition tools
• online social media
• political knowledge
• search engines
• voting

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank the Texas Poll for their assistance with survey questions.

Notes

1. The Texas Poll makes its data available for study and replication at http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/11_9_13.html

2. See Appendix A for exact questions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maegan Stephens

Maegan Stephens is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include political language, political trust, and the role of emerging technologies in news acquisition.

Joseph Yoo

Joseph Yoo is a PhD student in the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include political communication, telecommunications, and the influence of communication technology on human communications.

Rachel R. Mourao

Rachel R. Mourao is a PhD student in the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. Her areas of interest include political communication, international communication, new media, and Latin American Studies.

Hong T. Vu

Hong T. Vu is a PhD Candidate in the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include international communication, changes in newsrooms, and the development of mass communication theories in the new media environment.

Brian Baresch

Brian Baresch is an editor with Portfolio Media. He is interested in the future of news and the nature of information.

Thomas J. Johnson

Thomas J. Johnson is the Amon G. Carter Jr. Centennial Professor in the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include the uses and effects of new media, such as social network sites, in a political context.