Guide to Comparative Politics on the Internet

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2. SELECTION BIAS

Just as the highest proportions of internet users are in the developed world, so too are most websites. This gives rise to the ‘selection bias’ discussed in our book (pp. 97-8): the tendency to study topics for which information is readily available. It is easier for us all - professors as well as students - to write about internet-rich topics such as the American presidency and British government than about internet-poor areas such as social movements in Guatemala.

As a result of selection bias, the known becomes ever clearer but the unknown remains opaque, thus contradicting the underlying spirit of academic enquiry. A case can even be made that a greater total contribution to knowledge would emerge if, for a period, we all agreed to research website-free topics!