The relationship of digital media platforms and public participation in election campaigns was investigated through an original survey of randomly selected registered voters. The goal was to produce a better understanding of how exposure and attention to political news on different digital platforms were associated with participatory behaviors and to test whether the association of participation and digital news was moderated by online political expression as predicted by the differential gains model of political engagement. Among platforms, news websites, Facebook, and Twitter produced the strongest positive relationship with online expression, while news websites and mobile news apps were the strongest predictors of off-line participation. Online expression was significantly related to participation, and enhanced digital news use’s association with participation across platforms. These results hold practical implications for journalists to better understand how to allocate resources across digital platforms, anticipate audience interest, and engage with digital news users during election campaigns.
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