Youth Participation in a Government Program: Challenges in E-Democracy (original) (raw)

Youth online participation in government decision making

2010

Online participation in government decision making using the Internet and social networking technologies are expected to advance democracy, improve government decisions, increase citizens’ trust in government, and enhance government accountability and transparency. Technologically savvy, immersed in the Internet and social networking, young citizens are creating new opportunities for governments to engage them online in consultative and decision making processes. However, not much is known about how to encourage young people to participate and engage online in these processes on a large scale. Their motivations for, and impediments to, participation are not well understood (Coleman, 2008). This paper contributes to better understanding of online youth participation and challenges of increasing participation by i) proposing a framework to explore levels of e-participation (the ‘engagement ladder’), ii) presenting a field study of youth (aged 9-18) online participation in government d...

The Civic Web - Young People, the Internet and Civic Participation

There has been widespread concern in contemporary Western societies about declining engagement in civic life; people are less inclined to vote, to join political parties, to campaign for social causes, or to trust political processes. Young people in particular are frequently described as alienated or apathetic. Some have looked optimistically to new media—and particularly the Internet—as a means of revitalizing civic life and democracy. Governments, political parties, charities, NGOs, activists, religious and ethnic groups, and grassroots organizations have created a range of youth-oriented websites that encourage widely divergent forms of civic engagement and use varying degrees of interactivity. But are young people really apathetic and lacking in motivation? Does the Internet have the power to re-engage those disenchanted with politics and civic life?

New media, new citizens: the terms and conditions of online youth civic engagement.

2010

The increasingly salient role of new media in young people's lives has led to a debate about the potential of the internet as a means of political communication and youth participation. While a growing body of scholarship has engaged with the issue, there is lack of empirical research linking young people's civic motivations to their internet uses, and in particular to their evaluations, as users, of UK civic websites. This thesis brings together the study of youth civic engagement and the practice of user experience in order to explore the civic factors and website elements that motivate young people to participate via the internet. Employing a large survey and a qualitative study of a purposively sampled community of young citizens and internet users, the research explores youth civic needs and how these translate into specific uses of the web. Furthermore, a comprehensive content analysis of twenty civic websites is juxtaposed with a user experience study, in order to facilitate a dialogue between the online text and the users.

E-Civic Engagement and the Youth

International Journal of E-Planning Research, 2012

This article explores how community-based organizations working in low-income residential neighborhoods of U.S. cities employ e-tools and social networking platforms to engage the youth. The authors interviewed representatives of community organizations that work with young adults from lower-income groups in Chicago to comprehend their actual usages and perceptions of electronic tools. These organizations facilitate a wide-range of initiatives including political and after-school education, gang-free spaces, crime intervention and prevention, and arts and media. They found that the organizations have internalized the idea of employing e-Engagement techniques to enhance communication with their constituents but use new technologies and social media in multiple ways. Many respondents posit that the presently available e-tools enable certain forms of civic engagement but require sustained resources. Also stressed is the roles of face-to-face communication, offline-meetings, and other t...