With the declining participation in civic engagement behaviors such as voting, people are turning to other means to demonstrate civic participation. This study examined the role of volunteering as a means to establish civic engagement. Because of this civic participation behavioral shift, the relationship between civic engagement and the communication tactics used by volunteer based organizations was investigated.
This study investigated the relationship between civic engagement and political efficacy. Additionally, this study examined the interplay between organizational characteristics (trust, control mutuality, exchange relationship, and commitment) and civic engagement. Lastly, perceptions of new and traditional methods of communications to encourage civic engagement and build trust of volunteer based organizations were explored.
To address these relationships, this study used on online survey with 245 adults and the data were analyzed using a linear regression analysis and SPSS Textual Analysis for Surveys. This study used convenience and snowball sampling. This survey used various civic engagement scales and James Grunigs PR Measurement Scale for organizational factors. Findings show higher levels of participation of political interest and trust lead to higher levels of political efficacy. Additionally, stronger control mutuality beliefs of an organization lead to higher levels of civic engagement. Participants reported email and direct mail to be the methods of communication they are most familiar with from their volunteer based organizations that encourage engagement. Furthermore, ease and access to information are crucial for volunteers regarding engagement and trust.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04232012-113036 |
| Date | 25 April 2012 |
| Creators | Marks, Kristin Nicole |
| Contributors | Lundy, Lisa, Sanders, Meghan, Reynolds, Amy |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04232012-113036/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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