What's New
Digital Media Literacy Education and Online Civic and Political
Can media literacy education promote and improve youth engagement in civic and political life? Unfortunately, to date, there have been almost no quantitative assessments of the frequency or possible impacts of media literacy education. This study draws on a unique panel data set of a diverse group of youth in high school and college settings. It finds that exposure to media literacy education is not strongly related to demographic variables. In addition, with controls for prior levels of online political activities, for political interest, and for a broad range of demographic variables, this study also finds that digital media literacy education is associated with increased online political engagement and increased exposure to diverse perspectives.
The Civic and Political Significance of Online Participatory Cultures among Youth Transitioning to Adulthood
Most existing scholarship that measures the impact of the Internet on civic or political engagement focuses on political uses of new media. Drawing on two large panel studies, we find that youth engagement in nonpolitical online participatory cultures may serve as a gateway to participation in important aspects of civic and political life, including volunteering, community problem-solving, protest activities, and political voice. These relationships remain statistically significant for both datasets, even with controls for prior levels of civic and political participation and a full range of demographic variables. While politically driven online participation is clearly worthy of attention, these findings indicate that it should not be seen as the only relevant bridge from online activity to civic and political engagement.
Youth Online Activity and Exposure to Diverse Perspectives
Some see the Internet as a means of exposure to divergent perspectives, while others believe that it is likely to foster echo chambers. We agree that it is important to attend to these possibilities, but we find that this discussion is often framed inappropriately. Drawing on a unique panel survey of the online practices of youth (ages 16–21) and on their civic and political engagement, we find that most youth are not consistently exposed to echo chambers or divergent perspectives. Rather, we find that most youth are exposed to views that align with and diverge from their own, or they are exposed to neither. We also find that political interest, particular forms of online participation, and digital media literacy education can promote greater exposure to these diverse perspectives.
"It's just a game": Ethical reasoning in virtual worlds
“How do Boston-area youth (15–25) reason about ethical dilemmas occurring within virtual worlds such as ‘World of Warcraft’?”; and “Which considerations seem to shape their ethical responses?” In semi-structured interviews 27 young people were presented with an ethical dilemma: subjects were asked to imagine that they had been playing an online multiplayer game of around 30,000 players for two weeks.
Croft, J., Flores, A., Frances, J. M., & Gilbert, S. (2011). "It's just a game": Ethical reasoning in virtual worlds. The GoodWork Project Report Series. Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Youth Internet Use and Recruitment into Civic and Political Participation
As political engagement moves online, candidates are more frequently relying on the Internet to share information and mobilize voters (Herrnson et al. 2007), and Internet recruitment is particularly likely to target youth (under 25) for varied forms of civic and political participation (Rock the Vote, 2008; Schlozman et al, 2010). This study draws on panel survey data of 436 youth surveyed in high school (ages 16-17) and following the 2008 election (ages 19-22) to examine whether and under what conditions recruitment in general and internet recruitment specifically encourage participation in varied civic and political activities
Online Localities: Implications for Democracy and Education.
As people spend more time online and conduct more of their day-to-day business in this manner, scholars have begun to questions what, if any, implica- tion these trends have for participation in local communities and for the func- tioning of our democracy.
Digital Opportunities for Civic Education
We argue that civic educators’ ability to productively address current low levels of youth civic knowledge and participation requires increased attention to the civic and political dimensions of digital media. We say this for two reasons. First, civic and political life has moved online. If youth are to participate, educators must help youth learn to employ these online forms of activity. Second, there are many ways educators can take advantage of youth engagement with digital media to foster youth civic and political engagement and development.
