Why context matters: the role of campaign context in the relationship between digital media use and political participation

Many questions remain about the effects of digital media use on citizens’ political engagement. This article argues that this is because such effects depend on the context in which digital media are used. Its findings are based on two cross-sectional sets from the 2010 and 2013 Australian Election Study and show that (1) political resources played different moderating roles in the association between digital media and offline participation, and (2) such a moderating role depended on different campaign contexts in the two elections, with context affecting political efficacy. The findings confirm that campaign context can function as leverage in motivating online news consumption and political participation, thereby emphasising the importance of political contexts in media use and political behaviour.