Political Involvement: Characteristics and Categories

Abstract

Political involvement is conceptualized as an orientation toward a political situation that distinguishes qualitative differences in message processing. This stands in contrast to traditional conceptions of political involvement, which describe deep-seated individual traits that differ little over time. Three categories of situational political involvement are proposed (active involvement, passive involvement, and uninvolved) and accompanying communication patterns are examined with a 52-item Q sample during the 1994 California gubernatorial campaign. The actively involved category indicated different communication behaviors than the passively involved—and especially the uninvolved. The most important behaviour distinguishing the actively involved was interpersonal communication—talking about politics.