A study of civic engagement among well-known bloggers

E世代的公民參與行為之研究－－以網路知名部落客為例

近年來資訊通訊科技的發展與使用是否能提升公民參與或促使公民參與行為一直是相當受重視的議題。本研究探討現今部落格及社交網站使用普遍的情況下，公民參與形式是否與過去有所不同？藉由網路問卷發放方式，以國內具指標性影響力的知名部落客為研究對象，共回收有效問卷89份進行分析。本研究結果主要發現：（1）多數受訪部落客的使用行為仍主要以情感抒發與人際互動為主，在網路上積極傳達理念及參與社會、政治議題討論者僅屬於少數，但部落客網路公民參與行為明顯多於實體的公民參與行為；（2）在網路上積極展現公民參與行為的特定部落客，同時也會在實際日常生活中參與公眾事務；（3）使用部落格作為傳達理念與參與社會、政治議題討論越多之特定部落客，具有較高的公民意識，也較會在網路上進行公民參與行為。

Whether the development and usage of information communication technology can enhance political participation and civic engagement was a heated issue. Some scholars argued that usages of ICT enhance civic engagement, while others suggested ICT might transform the way citizens engaged in civil society. This research aims at studying civic engagement behaviors among those well-known bloggers who might represent the leadership in Internet community regarding public affairs. By do so, we can explore whether the participation in public affairs in information age differ from the previous. Furthermore, whether the use of ICT facilitates political participation and civic engagement can be answered. An online survey was conducted and a total of 89 responses were collected in this study. The results suggested that the main purposes of being active on weblogs for those well-known bloggers were attributed to emotional expression and social interaction, only small amount of bloggers viewed weblog as the main platform to actively engage and promote public affairs. Nevertheless, the results reported that they were more likely to engage online public affairs than does that in real world. For those bloggers who were active on their weblogs regarding public affairs and political events, they also revealed active participation in civic engagement in the real world. Generally, they show high citizenship and online civic engagement than the others.