Innovation resistance of political websites and blogs among Internet users in Singapore

Abstract

The Internet has become an influential platform to disseminate diverse political perspectives and promote democracy. With the prevalent use of the Internet, Singapore is a unique context to examine if its people resist online political information in a socio-political situation where politics is considered a sensitive domain and content regulation is imposed on mainstream media. The study integrates the concept of innovation resistance and the ideas derived from the Technology Acceptance Model to explore the reasons why Singaporeans resist political websites and blogs. After a focus group discussion, a web survey by Nielsen of 607 respondents using a sampling frame to ensure representativeness of Singapore`s Internet users found that more than 40 per cent had never visited even one political website or blog. The data analysis reveals five main factors that cause the innovation resistance: perceived usefulness/image barrier, realization, perceived ease of use, peer influence and habitual conflict. Apart from perceived ease of use, the rest are found to affect users’ intentions regarding future adoption.