Media Addiction and Political Participation in Serbia

Jean-Louis Marie

Abstract

Appearance of the Internet and its spread to 38.8% of world population from 1995 to 2013 indicate that new media bring significant changes to societies around the world. Features of new media such as interactivity and possibility to use it from anywhere anytime indicate the Internet may be highly addictive. Data point to increases in overall media use over the last 60 years. On the other hand, decreases in political participation are registered together with decline in socializing and active membership in professional organizations for the same period. Research is conducted through nationally representative survey in Serbia during 2013. All hypotheses of this study have been confirmed including main one, saying that increases in media addiction cause decreases in political participation. Those who have less confidence in future are bigger media addicts, those who fear about present and future are bigger media addicts, those who are not interested in politics are bigger media addicts, those who have less political knowledge are bigger media addicts and finally that low participants in elections are bigger media addicts. This study is limited to Serbia, while it would be useful to measure media addiction in all countries. New methodology introduced by this study should be improved. Results of further studies should be presented with 3D graphs.

References

1. American Psychiatric Association (1995). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
2. Campbell E.D. (2004) “Acts of Faith: Churches and Political Engagement”. Political Behavior, 2004; 26: 155-180.
3. Chong D, Rogers R. (2005) “Racial Solidarity and Political Participation”. Political Behavior, 2005; 27: 347-374.
4. Davis R.A., Flett G.L., Besser A. (2002) “Validation of a new scale for measuring problematic Internet use: implications for preemployment screening”. CyberPsychology & Behavior 2002; 5:331–345.
5. Elliot M. (2010) Special Timeframes Issue – What Really Happened 2000 – 2010. Time Magazine 2010; Issue published on December 6th.
6. (2011) “Average Time Spent Per Day with Major Media by Us Adults”. Available at: http://www.emarketer.com/(S(eqpd0445sqvknv45k1apd345)) /Article.aspx? R=1008138. [Online]. Accessed on 20^th February 2012.
7. Fisoun V, Floros G, Geroukalis D, et al. (2012) Internet addiction in the island of Hippocrates: the associations between internet abuse and adolescent off-line behaviours. Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2012; 17:37–44.
8. Fisoun V., Floros G., Siomos K., et al. (2012) “Internet addiction as an important predictor in early detection of adolescent drug use experience-implications for research and practice”. Journal of Addiction Medicine 2012; 6:77–84.
9. Goldberg I. (1996). “Internet Addiction Disorder”. Internet [archived]: www.rider.edu/*suler/psycyber/supportgp.html [Accessed on Aug. 3 1996].
10. Internet World Stats. (2013) “Internet World Stats: Usage and Population Statistics”. Available at: http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm. [Online]. Accessed on 20^th July 2013.
11. Kuenzi T.M. (2006) “Nonformal Education, Political Participation and Democracy: Findings from Senegal”. Political Behavior, 2006; 28: 1-31.
12. Lake D.L.R., Huckfeldt R. (1998) “Social Capital, Social Networks and Political Participation”. Political Psychology, 1998; 19: 567-584.
13. Le J. (2001) “How Do Computers Affect Children’s Desire to Socialize? Transactions of the Oklahoma Junior Academy of Science”. Available at: http://oas.uco.edu/01/papers/le01.htm. [Online] Accessed on 15^th May 2010.
14. Nie N., Hull C., Bent D. (2011) IBM statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS Version 20). Computer software. Chicago, IL: SPSS.
15. (2009) “Television Audience 2009”. Available at: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/TVA_2009-for-Wire.pdf. [Online]. Accessed on 15^th May 2013.
16. (2011) “Kids and Gaming 2011”. Available at: http://kidscreen.com/2011/03/14/face-to-face-communication-drops-among-older-kids/ [Online]. Accessed on 15^th May 2013.
17. Pergams R.W., Zaradic P.A. (2006). “Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electronic media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies, playing video games, internet use and oil prices”. Journal of Environmental Management 2006; 80: 387-393.
18. Putnam R. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
19. Young K.S. (1998) Caught in the Net: how to recognize the signs of Internet addiction—and a winning strategy for recovery. New York: Wiley, pp. 257–258.
20. Young K.S. “Internet addiction: the emergence of a new clinical disorder”. Cyber Psychology and Behavior 1996; 1:237–244.