34
Emre Erdoğan
viors, is in positive correlation with the variables namely engaging in political activities in
the Internet, visiting websites or blogs of Internet activists, using the Internet for attending
political movements or participating in politics. The second factor, which can be called
“Perceptual Dimension” as it is related to perceptions rather than behaviors, is in corre-
lation with the variables namely using social media to convey one’s opinions, regarding
these as primary tools to communicate with others about politics and agreeing that the
Internet is a good tool for indicating political opinions.
To clarify the differences between these two dimensions certain variables are discussed.
Socioeconomic/demographic variables are gender, age, education, employment status
and financial status. Multivariable analyses show that gender does not have an effect on
the interviewee’s Internet use pattern, although previous research point to a gender gap
(Bimber, 2000; Best ve Krueger, 2005). Considering the age variable, comparative studies
show that youngsters access to the Internet more than elders and use the Internet diffe-
rent from them. Resources approach expresses that higher education levels provide more
access to resources as higher education levels means higher economic opportunities
and higher cognitive capacity which may imply higher participation. Concerning financial
status, it is certain that the income of the youngsters determine their access to opportuni-
ties; higher financial status may imply higher use of technology and distinctive behaviors
concerning political participation.
With regard to mobility and reinforcing thesis mentioned above, to determine which of
these two approaches is valid for Turkish youngsters a political participation index is built
by using political participation variables. In this index, non-conventional variables which
are namely signing a petition, attending a boycott, attending a peaceful demonstration
and attending a strike in the past are included. To measure the level of technology use of
the interviewees, a Technology Use Index is built which includes variables such as using
laptops, tablet computers, smart phones and using Internet to make “online” friends.
When we look at descriptive statistics, we see that there is a linear relation between
education level and participation scores. Youngsters with the lowest educational level
also have the lowest scores in terms of perception dimension. The most striking finding
is about the relation between participation scores and household financial status as the
expectation was higher participation scores for youngsters with higher incomes. The re-
sults show that the young people in the lowest 20 percent income level shows similar
active participation scores with the ones in the highest 20 percent income level. When it
comes to perception dimension, youngsters with high income levels have more positive
perception considering the political function of the Internet.
Both Technology Use and Political Participation is related to Behavioral dimension of
political participation in the Internet which means that youngsters who use more tech-
nology show higher political participation in the Internet in addition to higher “offline”
participation scores. It can be stated that, at the behavioral level, youngsters in different
