Civic Participation Reimagined: Youth Interrogation and Innovation in the Multimodal Public Sphere (original) (raw)
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Theory and Research in Social Education, 2016
The digital revolution has enabled important changes in political life. Opportunities to engage in participatory politics have expanded significantly. Participatory politics differ from institutional politics in that they are peer-based, interactive, and not guided by deference to traditional elites and institutions. These changes require a response from civic educators. Core practices of civic and political engagement, such as investigation, dialogue, circulation, production, and mobilization, must be taught differently because they are now frequently enacted differently and in different contexts. This article conceptualizes these changes, draws on a nationally representative survey to assess the frequency and expansion of these new practices, and highlights examples of curricular reform to help frame an expanded agenda for civic education in the digital age.
Youth, New Media, and the Rise of Participatory Politics.pdf
New media have come to play a prominent role in civic and political life. Social network sites, web sites and text increasingly serve as both a conduit for political information and a major public arena where citizens express and exchange their political ideas; raise funds; and mobilize others to vote, protest, and work on public issues. This chapter considers how the ascendency of today's new media may be introducing fundamental changes in political expectations and practices. Specifically, we see evidence that new media are facilitating participatory politics--interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern. While these kinds of acts have always existed, evidence suggests that new media are providing new opportunities for political voice and discussion, thus increasing the role of participatory politics in public life. In this chapter, we provide a conceptual overview of the implications of this shift for how political life is organized, emerging political practices, and pathways to political engagement. We focus our analysis on youth, who are early adopters of new media, and provide some empirical evidence to demonstrate the importance of participatory politics to their political life as well as to highlight some benefits as well as risks associated with this form of political engagement.
Civic Education and the Making of Citizens in the Digital Age
Social Science Research Network, 2014
The media are "a prerequisite for shaping the democratic character of a society" (Dahlgren, 2009: 2) as they are the extension of political communication beyond face-to-face settings. Media provide citizens with news and information about public affairs, political leaders, and events. They also offer a forum for debate, foster a vital public sphere, and contribute to the creation of a democratic culture. Studies indicate that people who follow politics through media, especially newspapers and online news sources, have greater knowledge of government and political affairs, attain higher levels of political efficacy, and are more inclined to participate (Delli Carpini and Keeter, 1996; Eveland and Scheufele, 2000; Kenski and Stroud, 2006). Further, media use can facilitate civic engagement, and provide an impetus for community building (Pasek, et al., 2006). Digital technology can facilitate both traditional and innovative forms of political participation. It allows participants to assert greater agency in circulating and consuming information, shaping messages, setting agendas, negotiating and creating networks, mobilizing forces, and influencing leaders and electoral outcomes. The dynamics of digital engagement are peer based, interactive, and nonhierarchical, which contrasts with the elite-driven, unidirectional characteristics of much traditional media (Jenkins, 2009; Cohen, et al., 2012). Digital communication technology has become increasingly integral to people's daily lives, opening new portals for political engagement. Yet many citizens, including young people who are open to innovation, do not make the connection between digital media use and politics (Milner, 2010; Kahne, Lee, and Feezell, 2012). Most citizens engage political media modestly at best. The media environment that is integral to citizen participation is multifaceted. Traditional media maintain a formidable presence even as constantly evolving new media take hold. Digital media have altered radically how people live and, as an extension, how they
Adolescent Civic Engagement in Contemporary Political and Technological Realities 1
Civic engagement interacts with civic structures and communication media, so adolescent civic engagement research must also interact with such political and technological realities. Since the turn of the 21st century, civic entities, such as nation-states, municipalities, and organizations, have changed rapidly and sometimes violently, indicating that civic engagement research could usefully ask, “How have the concept of civic engagement and related research with adolescents kept up with contemporary civic life and public media?” Toward that end, this chapter reviews recent international adolescent civic engagement research with a focus on context-sensitive transformations. The chapter summarizes definitions, contexts, methods, and findings of adolescent civic engagement research, pointing toward the ongoing need for this research field to become open to contemporary realities such as adolescents’ attempts to deal with disrupted and uncivil spaces, including war zones and refugee life spaces.
Educating for a Critical Democracy: Civic Participation Reimagined in the Council of Youth Research
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This article explores civic learning, civic participation, and the development of civic agency within the Council of Youth Research (the Council), a program that engages high school students in youth participatory action research projects that challenge school inequalities and mobilize others in pursuit of educational justice. We critique the neoliberal view of democracy that dominates in the existing research, policy, and practice around urban school reform and civic education and instead turn to evidence from social movements and critical social theory as a foundation for a reimagined, more robust vision of critical democracy. Through our analysis of the activities that the Council students engaged in during and after a five-week summer seminar, we offer findings about the kinds of learning and pedagogy that characterize a critical democratic space. We discuss how students and teachers learn through dialogue that characterizes them as public intellectuals; we explore how students develop new forms of civic participation through their engagement with digital, participatory media and interactive presentations to community stakeholders; and we document the developing sense of agency that students experience as a result of these authentic civic learning opportunities. We conclude by highlighting the impacts of this program and its potential to create a new paradigm for civic life and civic education.
New media, new citizens: the terms and conditions of online youth civic engagement.
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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.