Everyday Making through Facebook Engagement: Young Citizens’ Political Interactions in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (original) (raw)

Social Media and Political Participation Among British Youth

Journal of Promotional Communications, 2020

Scholars have long debated on youth political disengagement; its causes and its solutions. Recent research (Gibson and Cantijoch 2013; Loader et al. 2014; Xenos et al. 2014) has suggested that social media has become a space where new forms of participation have been established. These forms of participation are distinct and disassociated from traditional participatory acts and institutions, proving to be more favourable among young people. While current research has addressed social media’s influence in facilitating new forms of participation, what has yet to be established is whether participating in these forms encourages young people to participate in traditional manners, such as voting. The aim of this study, therefore, was to explore whether political experiences on social media has encouraged young people to participate in traditional manners. This study presents the findings of a thematic analysis of eight semi-structured interviews, conducted with university students. The results of the study show that having a prior interest in and knowledge of politics is the key determinant in whether young people partake in traditional participatory acts. This research highlights that social media cannot encourage further participation for those who feel disconnected and uninterested in politics and political issues, and that negative features of social media, such as the ‘fear of aggression’, pose as serious boundaries for young people when wanting to participate.

New Media and Youth Political Engagement

Journal of Applied Youth Studies, 2020

This article critically examines the role new media can play in the political engagement of young people in Australia. Moving away from "deficit" descriptions, which assert low levels of political engagement among young people, it argues two major points. First, that there is a well-established model of contemporary political mobilisation that employs both new media and large data analysis that can and have been effectively applied to young people in electoral and non-electoral contexts. Second, that new media, and particularly social media, are not democratic by nature. Their general use and adoption by young and older people do not necessarily cultivate democratic values. This is primarily due to the type of participation afforded in the emerging "surveillance economy". The article argues that a focus on scale as drivers of influence, the underlying foundation of their affordances based on algorithms, and the centralised editorial control of these platforms make them highly participative, but unequal sites for political socialisation and practice. Thus, recent examples of youth mobilisation, such as seen in recent climate justice movements, should be seen through the lens of cycles of contestation, rather than as technologically determined.

Facing an uncertain reception: young citizens and political interaction on Facebook

This article explores how the social ambiguities concerning audience and reception of posts on Facebook shape the forms of political interaction among young citizens on the site. Two sets of in-depth interviews are used to illustrate the ways that uncertainties about audience reception on Facebook inspire strategies for ‘inventing’ modes of political interaction on the one hand, and, for others, suppress opinion expression by creating the sense that talking politics on the site is a high risk endeavor.

The networked young citizen: social media, political participation and civic engagement

Information, Communication & Society, 2014

The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &

Remediating participation and citizenship practices on social network sites

Being mainstream places where a variety of online practices converge and are integrated, social network sites have also witnessed the emergence of grassroots and top-down political uses: from candidates’ and parties’ profiles, to single-issues campaigns’ discussion groups, to petitions and forms of ‘political fandom’, political content is now a constant presence in social media. Since social network sites are pervasive in young people’s everyday lives, questions of the effectives of the internet in engaging disaffected youth and expanding the opportunities for participation are under debate. This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study aimed at investigating political uses of social network sites and emerging practices of online participation among Italian youth. Participatory uses of social network sites are unevenly distributed among young people: political content tends often to be incorporated as identity marker, while other young people actively engage in citizenship practices online. Therefore, it is argued, civic and political uses of social media have to be contextualised in young people’s everyday lives, especially in their ‘civic cultures’ and in the particular ‘convergent media ecology’ in which they are immersed. Depending on the civic cultures young people form and shape, and the digital literacy they develop, political uses are either a further outcome of networked individualism or the signal of new modes of participation which is mainly grassroots, non conventional and concerning identity and lifestyle choices.

Youth Offline Political Participation: Trends and Role of Social Media

Recently, the growing body of research has waded into the decline of formal political participation and engagement among youth especially voting and party allegiance due to the heightened youth activism such as protests and demonstrations. However, past research proposes that there is a significant relationship between the usage of social media and online political participation among youth. Many of those studies have inordinately relied on college students as samples rather than the entire population of youth with a vast amount of knowledge and experience in. Yet, only few researches have tried to uncover the tendencies of youth participation in formal political activities such as voting and party allegiance via the unprecedented social networking sites such as Facebook to address this issue, the study has employed multiple regression analysis to examine the correlation between use of Facebook, interactivity with politicians, Facebook information quality, political interest and offline political participation among Nigerian youth. This study has shown that Facebook use, interactivity with political figures, Facebook information quality and political interest significantly correlates with offline political participation. Social media allows marginalized youth to interact with friends and political figures, fostering their engagement in political issues, as well as enabling them to share and express their opinions thus draw youth participation in political activities such as voting. Incisively, Facebook serves as a gateway where youth can acquire political knowledge and information. It has become apparent that social media helps to lower the barriers and widen the scope of informal political activities.

Young People, Politics and Social Media

2011

As voter turnout has fallen especially among young people, many have expressed high hopes that Internet and social media may stimulate political participation and deliberation. Obama’s success in engaging young voters in his 2008-campaign has been associated with effective use of social media like Facebook and MySpace. This has generated optimistic visions about how social media could not only make young people vote, but also become more active participants in political deliberation. Digital technologies, like social media, open several possibilities for people to access information, express political views and discuss issues with other people in their network. To what degree and how these opportunities may be used is another question. The Obama campaign may of course be the beginning of a new era with more participation, but it may also be a specific case, a case where one campaign managed to spread enthusiasm around its candidate for a number of reasons, and where social media was...

Youth, Social Media and Civic Engagement

This paper addresses these broad questions: What has been the nature and extent of use of social media for youth involvement in social and political issues? What global and regional strategies are needed enable the more efficient use of new technology and the social media in order to expand and deepen youth civic engagement? [Paper presented atExpert Group Meeting “Youth Civic Engagement: Enabling Youth Participation in Economic, Social and Political Life” 16-17 June 2014, UNESCO Headquarters Paris, France.]