Relevance & Research Question: In 2020, we saw a broader awakening to the continued systemic racism throughout all aspects of our society and heard renewed calls for racial justice. For the survey and market research industries, this has raised questions about how well our industry does to ensure that our public opinion research captures the full set of diverse voices that make up the United States. These questions were reinforced in the wake of the 2020 election with the scrutiny faced by the polling industry and the role that voters of color played in the election. Given the differential impact of COVID on people of color in the US and the volume of surveys working to understand vaccine hesitancy, the stakes could not be higher for us as an industry to get this right.

Methods & Data: We conducted a study to assess how well online samples represent communities of color and their diversity. While past studies have found lower bias in probability-based samples with online panels compared to opt-in samples (MacInnis et al., 2018; Yeager et al., 2011) there has been little investigation into representativeness among subgroups of interest. In Sept. 2020, we fielded parallel studies on Ipsos’ probability-based KnowledgePanel which is designed to be representative of the US and on opt-in nonprobability online sample with approximately 3,000 completes from each sample source. The questionnaire included a number of measures that could be benchmarked against gold standard surveys such at the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey, and the National Health Interview Survey.

Results: We found that across all race/ethnicity groups KnowledgePanel had lower bias than opt-in sample. However, in both sample sources, we found that bias was lowest among white respondents and higher among Black and Hispanic respondents. We highlight areas where it appears online samples underrepresent some of the diversity within communities of color.

Added Value: We provide recommendations to improve representativeness with online samples.

Relevance & Research Question: The paper aims at exploring inequality patterns in electoral participation and in different modes of non-institutionalized political participation among young adults in Greece. The main research question is whether youth political participation inequality patterns are shaped by both individual level determinants and the wider socio-economic conditions prevailing in Greece during the recent recession.

Methods & Data: The data derive from the EU-funded Horizon 2020 research project “Reinventing Democracy in Europe: Youth Doing Politics in Times of Increasing Inequalities” (EURYKA). The analysis uses youth-over sampled CAWI survey data of respondents under the age of 35 in Greece. Binary logistic regressions are used to predict Greek young adults’ electoral participation, non-institutionalized protest oriented participation (including demonstrations, strikes and occupations) and non-institutionalized individualized political participation (including boycotting, buycotting and signing petitions).

Results: The inequalities in young adults’ political engagement become most evident for non-institutionalized individualized acts and are less clear for non-institutionalized protest oriented acts and electoral participation. The non-institutionalized individualized modes of political involvement are not so widespread among diverse socio-economic groups among the Greek young population. However, social class determinants are less clearly related to young adults’ protest oriented political participation. Young adults from a broad range of social strata engage in the massive protests, demonstrations and the occupation movements emerged during the recent Greek recession. Similarly, a heterogeneous segment of young adults voted in the parliamentary elections of 2015, which was a landmark in the political scene, as the bipolar political system which dominated the country since the restoration of democracy in 1974, collapsed.

Added Value: Research on youth political participation inequalities is of great importance as young generations represent the emerging political and civic cultures in modern democracies. Political behaviors heavily depend on both the characteristics of individuals as well as of the environments in which they live. Although individual determinants are important in understanding potential inequalities in youth political participation, contextual conditions associated with the recent economic crisis might be decisive in mobilizing a more heterogeneous young population to claim their rights through non-institutionalized protest oriented acts and electoral politics in Greece.

Relevance and research question: In the last decade, internet-enabled mobile devices have become nearly universal, domesticated, and habitual. This paper examines how smartphone use influences broader patterns of internet use and outcomes. Combining domestication theory with media system dependency theory

Methods and data: We use the 2019 Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS), a random sample of the British population (N = 1818), collected using face-to-face in-home interviews. We use principal components analysis to derive three types of dependency on smartphones. Factor scores are used as dependent variables in OLS to identify the characteristics of people who are dependent in each of these three ways. Other regressions show how the three types contribute to ability to benefit from Internet use

Results: We identify three ways in which people have domesticated smartphones: orientation, play, and escape dependency. Each type of dependency has been developed by users with different characteristics. Orientation dependency is characteristic of people who are highly skilled and use their phone for instrumental purposes. Play dependency occurs among people who are less educated. Escape dependency is strong in people who are non-white, in large households and live in urban areas. All three dependencies are major contributors to amount and variety of use. All three also shape internet outcomes: orientation dependency has a positive influence and play and escape dependencies a negative influence on the extent to which they benefit from Internet use.

Added value: The results show that, in addition to demographic and internet skills variables, the ways in which people incorporate mobile devices into their lives has a strong influence on how they use the entire internet and whether they enjoy its benefits. The negative effect of play and escape dependency demonstrates a digital division in which socially excluded individuals tend to domesticate internet technologies in ways that do not give them certain key benefits of the internet. Depending on the internet for play or escape does not improve their ability to find a job, participate in the political system, save money or find information.