Political participation refers to all forms of involvement in which citizens express their political opinion and/or convey that opinion to political decision-makers. Within the scientific literature there is a broad consensus on the view that political participation is one of the cornerstones of a well-functioning democracy. One of the most innovative forms of political participation that has developed during the past decade, is based on the use of on-line communication tools. The use of websites, email-campaigns, virtual communities, social networking sites can be considered as an important new element in political communication and participation. There is still no consensus in the scientific literature, however, about the impact of new political communication structures on citizens` civic and political engagement. This paper will focus on one specific aspect of this puzzle, i.e. the mobilization effect of the usage of social networking sites for political participation. More specific, the paper will explore the intended and unintended mobilization effect of citizens` use of social networking sites on the different dimensions of offline and internet-mediated political participation. If we want to develop the existing political participation and mobilization theories we should take the wider context and new resources offered in the online world into account. In order to answer our main research question we rely on 2011 survey data of first and second year University students in Canada, which is especially developed to measure detailed online media consumption and new forms of political participation.
