<div><b>The Internet is a technology that has been one that has been transformed American society. </b><b>The role of the Internet had become apparent in the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 in light of shutdowns and quarantines by the government. </b><b>As a result, the technologies surrounding the Internet have created a space where there are inequalities in which the Internet is accessed. </b><b>As a result, these inequalities affect not only socioeconomic factors, but political behaviors as well. </b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>This dissertation also seeks to explain the political behaviors that are enabled by Internet access quality.</b></div><div><b>I argue that a person's level of Internet access can affect their ideological and partisan identity, as well as political engagement, especially in behaviors such as political giving. I use data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Survey and the 2010 U.S. Decennial Census to test these theories. </b><b>By using a measure I develop called the Quality of Internet Access (QoIA), I find evidence that Internet access has affects on ideological and partisan identity. </b><b>I also find that QoIA affects political engagement positively, specifically in how donations are given to, and solicited by political campaigns. </b><b>I conclude that the QoIA measurement should be flexibly used and research in taking account for Internet access quality should continue as the inequalities of the digital divide still exist. </b></div>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12736079 |
| Date | 30 July 2020 |
| Creators | Michael Roderick Brownstein (9183518) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/The_Quality_of_Internet_Access_and_Political_Engagement/12736079 |
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