Blogging for participants: framing the candidate blog for mobilization

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This study examined the effects of message framing on intentions to participate on behalf of a political candidate, as well as the moderating role of partisan intensity. Participants in a 2 (frame topic: strategy vs. issue) x 2 (frame tone: personal vs. impersonal) x 3 (message repetitions) mixed design experiment (N=162) viewed three political candidate blog posts designed to highlight two frame manipulations. Blog posts were framed in terms of either campaign strategy or issues, and were constructed to highlight either a personal or impersonal tone. The framing manipulations were between-subjects factors, and the message repetitions were within subjects. Participants who viewed the strategy-framed blog posts reporter greater significantly higher intent to participate than those exposed to issue-framed blog posts. These effects were particularly strong among participants with high levels of partisan intensity. Contrary to expectation, the impersonal rather than the personal tone appeared to mobilize participation. Although the frame manipulations had no significant direct effect on respondents' thoughts about participation, strategy thoughts were found to partially mediate the effects of frame on intention to participate.