Citizen Perceptions of The European Union: The Impact of the EU W ...

using the Internet far more heavily than any other age group, while being unaware even of the existence of the EU Web site—there is a whole area for improvement that might lead to closing the gap between institutions and citizens.

Apart from the fact that many young people seem to be unaware of the Web site's existence—as established in pre-tests with university and school students prior to conducting this study—another essential element is the interaction that takes place via the Web site. While people may be aware of an online information source, this does not mean that they will use it. And even if they have used a Web site, this does certainly not mean that they will use it again in the future. As Choo, Detlor, and Turnbull (2001) pointed out, users act based on heuristics in the same way that, for example, consumers base their buying decisions on past experiences, both satisfactory and unsatisfactory. Thus, people employ heuristics to make meaning out of situations and to make decisions. In the context of information seeking and Web site use, this would mean that a satisfying past experience is likely to lead to further use of the same source in the future, while a frustrating experience decreases the chance of continued future use. This reasoning is in line with the uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective, in which the perceived outcome of media use feeds back into the beliefs and expectations a user holds, which, in turn, influence the next incident of media use. For now, it is important to stress that the experiences users have online are dependent on past experiences on- and offline and are likely to influence future experiences, again both on- and offline.

1.2. Relevance

But while these issues may be of interest from an academic point of view, that is, in that the integration of users and communicators within the same framework might offer theoretical advances, it should also be considered as to how much the object of this study is of practical or social relevance. In short: Does it matter? Is it really important what