What Makes a Good Citizen Online? The Emergence of Discursive Citizenship Norms in Social Media Environments

The importance of citizenship norms—shared understandings of how citizens ought to participate in society—has been discussed at length in the past two decades, particularly in conversations around changing notions of citizenship in the digital age. Yet, most studies have gravitated between the two poles of dutiful and self-actualizing citizenship. In this study, we explore which citizenship norms people express related to their political participation in social media environments and which affordances and experiences in social media environments shape these norms. Through interviews and focus group discussions, we found that citizenship norms emerge in response to positive and negative experiences in social media environments. We found three groups of norms that are distinctive to the networked environments of social media: individual information care, discourse care, and considered contribution. These can serve as conceptual frames for understanding the normative underpinnings of discursive participation in social media environments from the perspective of ordinary citizens

Logged on for Democracy: The Relationship between Digital Media and Offline Political Participation over Time

Over the years Internet use has become ingrained in Americans’ daily lives. In turn, those running for office have begun to utilize the Internet for campaigning at all levels of government. How did Internet use in the 2012 and 2016 elections impact political participation? This honors thesis will examine how Internet use affects six different modes of political participation, and compare it to the findings from Bimber and Copeland’s (2013) original study that examined the 12 years prior. In addition, I will also analyze participation in protest marches and signing petitions as two additional acts of political participation. American National Election Study data from the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections concerning Internet use and traditional political participation will be used. My findings support the original authors’ expectation that while those who use Internet are more likely to participate than those who do not, it is not a consistent relationship across all of the different acts of political participation, nor is it consistent over time; however, there are a few political acts such as persuading others and doing campaign work that show a possible trend over time for a positive relationship

Who, What, When, Where, And Why? A New Story Of Journalism, As Told By Nonprofit News Organizations

Communication scholars and professional journalists have used genres in recent years to propose solutions to social and financial crises that continuously plague the field in a digital age. One of these emerging genres is nonprofit journalism, which, with claims of transparency and a dedication to the “public interest” has established a strong following by the public and professionals since 2010. In part, the trust of the public has also been restored through nonprofit news organizations placing them at the forefront of the drama of journalism, as actors and changemakers. As audiences are invited into a new worldview of the field of journalism, its scene, agency, and purpose, this thesis explores exactly what story is being told, and what repercussions it may have for the drama of journalism as a whole. By rethinking the role of journalism from informer to changemaker, professionals in the field may risk crossing a definitional boundary from journalist to activist

What makes a good citizen online? The emergence of discursive citizenship norms in social media environments

The importance of citizenship norms—shared understandings of how citizens ought to participate in society—has been discussed at length in the past two decades, particularly in conversations around changing notions of citizenship in the digital age. Yet, most studies have gravitated between the two poles of dutiful and self-actualizing citizenship. In this study, we explore which citizenship norms people express related to their political participation in social media environments and which affordances and experiences in social media environments shape these norms. Through interviews and focus group discussions, we found that citizenship norms emerge in response to positive and negative experiences in social media environments. We found three groups of norms that are distinctive to the networked environments of social media: individual information care, discourse care, and considered contribution. These can serve as conceptual frames for understanding the normative underpinnings of discursive participation in social media environments from the perspective of ordinary citizens

Are South Africa's youth 'good' engaged citizens? An application of Russel Dalton's 'good citizen' thesis

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Post 1994 South Africa has witnessed a decline in voter turnout, predominately among the youth. This decline in political participation matches the global trend of stagnating youth engagement in the political process across liberal democracies. The transition to a democratic regime in 1994 was accompanied by an expectation that the ‘born-free’ generation (those who came of age around 1994) would embody democratic values and be engaged in the political process, especially through periodic voting. This has not been the case. Young people vote at far lower rates than older people. This has raised concerns among South African scholars and political actors because young people are the numerically dominant age group in the electorate. Voting is traditionally perceived to be synonymous with political participation. This is accompanied with sentiments of obligation or duty to vote in terms of the dutiful good citizen. Thus, waning political participation, specifically among the young, undermines the legitimacy of a democracy. However, a growing revisionist explanation has been posed by scholars in recent years. It suggests that young people are engaged and active in forms of participation that are not traditional indicators of citizenship. One of these scholars includes American political scientist, Russell Dalton, who argues, based on the ‘good citizen’ thesis, that political participation is undergoing a transformation. Therefore, youth are not disengaging from the political participation. Instead, they have become ‘good’ and engaged citizens who prefer direct individualized forms of political action as opposed to electoral forms of political participation. This change, the thesis argues, is due to an alteration in citizenship norms. These studies have been conducted mainly in established democracies. With the assistance of the South African 2019 round of Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP) post-election survey dataset, this study seeks to fill this gap. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional approach, this study replicates Dalton’s (2016) ‘good citizen’ thesis and Martin’s (2012) Civic Voluntarism Model to examine firstly, patterns of political participation among young citizens, and secondly, reasons for their low electoral participation. suggest that the youth display low levels of participation rates. While electoral participation is still the preferred method compared to non-electoral/unconventional forms of political participation, youth are also engaging in other forms of unconventional forms of political participation in contrast to older people. The purpose of this research is to contribute towards the understanding of youth’s political participation and draw awareness to the need to expand the definition of political participation and good citizenship.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Om te stem word tradisioneel as sinoniem met politieke deelname beskou. Dit gaan gepaard met gevoelens van verpligting of plig ten opsigte van die pligsgetroue goeie burger. Afnemende politieke deelname, veral onder die jongmense, ondermyn dus die legitimiteit van 'n demokrasie. Geleerdes het die afgelope jare egter 'n groeiende revisionistiese verduideliking gelewer, wat daarop dui dat die jongmense betrokke en aktief is in vorme van deelname wat nie tradisionele aanduidings van burgerskap is nie. Een van hierdie geleerdes sluit in die Amerikaanse politieke wetenskaplike, Russell Dalton, wat op grond van die 'goeie burger’-proefskrif tesis beweer dat politieke deelname 'n transformasie ondergaan. Daarom ontkoppel die jeug nie van die politieke deelname nie. In plaas daarvan het hulle 'goeie' en betrokke burgers geword wat direkte geindividualiseerde vorme van politieke optrede verkies in teenstelling met kiesvorme van politieke deelname. Hierdie verandering, volgens die tesis, is te wyte aan 'n verandering in burgerskapnorme. Hierdie studies is hoofsaaklik in gevestigde demokrasiee uitgevoer. Met die hulp van die Suid-Afrikaanse 2019-rondte van die vergelykende nasionale verkiesingsprojek (CNEP) na-verkiesingsopnameset, wil hierdie studie hierdie leemte vul. Met behulp van 'n kwantitatiewe, dwarssnitbenadering, herhaal hierdie studie Dalton (2016) se 'goeie burger’-proefskrif en Martin (2012) se burgerlike vrywilligheidsmodel om eerstens patrone van politieke deelname onder jong burgers te ondersoek, en tweedens die redes vir hul lae verkiesingsdeelname. Bevindings dui daarop dat jongmense 'n lae vlak van deelname toon. Verkiesingsdeelname is die verkieslike metode in vergelyking met nie-elektorale/onkonvensionele vorme van politieke deelname. Uit 'n optimistiese uitkyk is jongmense besig met ander vorme van onkonvensionele vorme van politieke deelname. Hierdie frekwensies is hoer in teenstelling met ouer mense. Die doel van die navorsing is om by te dra tot die begrip van jeug se politieke deelname en bewustheid te vestig op die behoefte om die definisie van politieke deelname en goeie burgerskap uit te brei

Youth and the Participatory Promise

The emergence of digital technologies and the ways we have seen many youth engaging with the digital environment suggests that youth may no longer be just passive consumers of digital technologies but that — given the right circumstances — can become more active co-designers and co-shapers of the digital environment. This promise of enhanced participation is supported by two strands of research. First, from a purely descriptive perspective, my research shows increased participation when studying youth behavior in various areas, including privacy and news. Second, from an analytical and normative perspective, we can observe a trend — and should support the potential — of stronger youth engagement and an increase in opportunities for youth to participate as we shape the future of our digital society. The implementation of participatory research methods and the child rights discourse illustrate this participatory potential. Together, the two perspectives suggest a “participatory promise,” in which young people have an integral and constitutive role when embracing the benefits and addressing the challenges of the digital environment and shaping its future

New Game Plus. The Effects of Videogaming on Sociopolitical Attitudes and Behavior

Does playing videogames damage citizens&rsquo; social capital, or do gamers gradually develop distinct political engagement models? I utilize two complementary datasets&mdash;a unique adolescent panel study from Sweden and an original survey experiment conducted on a representative sample of US citizens&mdash;to reach three main conclusions. One, young gamers are generally less interested in sociopolitical issues, less prosocial, less trusting of political institutions, and less supportive of democracy. Two, gamers have steadily gravitated towards online forms of political participation and embraced a specific set of gaming-related values such as Internet neutrality. Three, gamers will become more interested in mainstream political topics if those topics are clearly connected to gaming. To summarize, gamers are shaping into a proto-issue public with distinct policy preferences. More broadly, engagement in leisure activities can&mdash;and frequently does&mdash;affect people&rsquo;s political behavior. My research is important given the ongoing decrease in traditional political engagement among younger demographics. I illustrate how people detached from mainstream political life find the motivation to involve themselves in the civic life of their communities.</p

Developing Self-Actualizing and Dutiful Citizens: Testing the AC-DC Model Using Panel Data Among Adolescents

One of the major issues facing contemporary democracies is how the rapidly changing media environment influences democratic citizenship. Rather than strengthening or weakening citizenship per se, the present study analyzes whether traditional news and interactive online media encourage different forms of civic and political engagement among adolescents. More specifically, we use three waves of annually gathered panel data to study Swedish adolescents’ development of self-actualizing (AC) and dutiful (DC) citizen qualities. Overall, the analyses lend support for the AC-DC model, and suggest that communicative practices matter. While traditional news media use is related to DC qualities—such as institutional participation, political trust, and external efficacy—interactive online media use promotes AC qualities, including both online and offline cause-oriented activism