Cato Waeterloos

• Postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven

Social media have expanded citizens' political repertoires with new modes of action. To measure these changing political practices, a new instrument, called the Social Media Political Participation Scale was developed and psychometrically tested. The instrument aims to capture both active, expressive forms of political action through social media a...

Purpose Following the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many forms of bottom-up civic action emerged as ways to collectively “flatten the curve” and tackle the crisis. In this paper, the authors examine to what extent local online and offline social integration contributes to civic participation, above and beyond typical predictors s...

It often remains unclear how young citizens are combining various forms of political participation, as well as why they choose some over others, especially within a single-issue movement. Moreover, little is known about how social networking sites (SNS) fit into the political repertoires of citizens. Therefore, this study explores youths’ political...

De verspreiding van het coronavirus stelt ons voor de nodige uitdagingen, dit zowel op persoonlijk als op maatschappelijk vlak. Dit rapport beschrijft de resultaten van een survey-onderzoek, uitgevoerd bij 7146 Vlaamse gebruikers van het online buurtnetwerk Hoplr. Specifiek trachtten we met dit onderzoek burgerparticipatie en sociale steun tijdens...

Met deze studie trachtten we in kaart te brengen hoe jonge Belgische burgers deelnemen aan verschillende vormen van politieke participatie, zoals het bijwonen van gemeenteraden, protesteren of het delen van een politieke post op sociale media. Daarom werd een online survey verspreid onder 720 jongeren. De resultaten tonen aan hoe zij op diverse man...

Over the past decades, political participation in an online context has gained substantive attention. However, it is only recently that conceptual advancements have been made concerning the specific expressive and mobilizing practices that occur on social media. This article argues on the importance and implications of recognizing political partici...

This study employs the orientation–stimulus–reasoning–orientation–response (O-S-R-O-R) framework to examine how multi-platform news consumption is associated with civic participation during the COVID-19 pandemic (offline and via social media) and how this relation is mediated by civic talk and civic attitudes. A survey was administered to 1500 adul...

“De eigen, vertrouwde omgeving zolang het kan; formele, geïnstitutionaliseerde zorg wanneer het moet”. Binnen dit beleid, is een steeds grotere rol weggelegd voor digitale platformen. Hoewel deze een unieke omgeving vormen waar ondersteuning spontaan kan groeien, blijft er een centrale rol weggelegd voor formele zorginstellingen en de politiek.

Feelings of dissatisfaction with the political status quo are believed to mobilize citizens into non-institutional political action, such as protest. Still, little is known about whether and how political participation through social media provide an alternative voicing route for discontented citizens. Guided by grievance theory, this article asses...

Schermen: we zijn er helemaal zot van. En wij niet alleen, want ook de jongste generaties kunnen niet meer zonder. Al negen edities lang zoekt het Apestaartjarenonderzoek uit wat kinderen en jongeren tussen 6 en 18 jaar daar juist mee aanvangen. Welke toestellen gebruiken ze? Hoe gedragen ze zich in de online wereld? Wat kunnen ze al goed en waar h...

Background: In several countries, contact tracing apps (CTAs) have been introduced to warn users if they have had high-risk contacts that could expose them to SARS-CoV-2 and therefore could develop COVID-19 or further transmit the virus. For CTAs to be effective, sufficient critical mass of users is needed. Until now, adoption of these apps in sev...

Political participation, broadly referring to citizens’ engagement in activities aimed at influencing government institutions, policies, or patterns of social behaviour, is a key aspect of a healthy democracy. Such behaviours can also occur online, where citizens can benefit from reduced participation costs due to the characteristics of the interne...

Often coined as digital natives, contemporary teens are ascribed a paradoxical status of skilled but vulnerable media users. Therefore, media literacy initiatives often target young audiences in order to mitigate detrimental media effects as well as to facilitate emancipatory media engagements. The literature on media literacy draws from diverse di...

Preliminary findings from as study among Belgian young adults (n = 720). In the study, electoral exit behaviour is assesses and linked to various forms of political participation (protest participation, institutional participation and SNS participation). In addition, attitudes of discontent (distrust, populism and political hopelessness) are linked...

BACKGROUND In several countries, contact tracing apps (CTAs) have been introduced to warn users if they have had high-risk contacts that could expose them to SARS-CoV-2 and could, therefore, develop COVID-19 or further transmit the virus. For CTAs to be effective, a sufficient critical mass of users is needed. Until now, adoption of these apps in s...

The present study aims to shed light on the different types of civic participation that emerged after the COVID-19 outbreak. Specifically, we assess how different news use patterns (or news repertoires) are associated with various forms of civic participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was distributed among Flemish adults, using...

In recent years, changes have occurred not only in how citizens engage in political life, but also in what they engage (Ekström & Sveningsson, 2019). Scholars have drawn attention to the fluid, personalized and creative forms of political participation that are often enabled by social media (Theocharis, 2015). In addition, the emergence of single i...

To diminish the risk of spreading COVID-19 as society exits the lockdowns, several apps have been developed for contact tracing. These apps register which users have been in proximity of each other. If a user is diagnosed with COVID-19, app users who have been recently in proximity to this person are notified. The effectiveness of these apps highly...

Background: To diminish the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus, apps have been developed that trace contacts with COVID-19-infected individuals and warn individuals who are at risk of having contracted the virus. However, the effectiveness of these apps highly depends on their uptake by the population. Objective: The present study investigated...