News portals as a gateway to civic engagement: the case of South Korea

Applying the communication mediation model and the communication infrastructure theory in the Korean news media environment, the current study investigates the potential of news portals as a gateway to civic engagement through online discussion. Specifically, this study distinguishes the active use of news portals for information about community issues and public affairs (e.g. commenting, passing along and searching for information) from the passive use of news portals (i.e. simple reception of information). An analysis of a national survey of 1294 Korean adults shows that active, not passive, use of news portals positively predicts online community discussion to subsequently increase cognitive, psychological, and behavioral dimensions of civic engagement: neighborhood belonging, collective efficacy, and civic participation. Importantly, active portal use's indirect positive relationship with civic engagement through online community discussion is stronger among people with higher news portal credibility. Implications are further discussed in the context of Korean news portals.