The Gender-Gap in Political Online-Participation – New Chances and New Challenges for Social Equality

[extact] The Internet has become a widely used medium alongside telephone, television, radio and newspapers. The Internet influences to a greater or lesser extent all areas of daily and working life, including the use of commonplace communication messengers such as WhatsApp, Viber or Facebook, the use of google tools like calendars for organization, and the use of email. Moreover, social networks like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook or Pinterestare frequently used. The threshold for Internet participation is low, making access easy.Through the spread of the Internet, numerous new and innovative possibilities have emerged. One example is the potential for online involvement in political decision-making processes; this possibility expands traditional offline methods of communication. One well-known example of political online-participation on the national level involves petitions on the Internet. In Germany, different kinds of formal national petitions can be signed on https://epetitionen.bundestag.de/ after a quick registration on the platform, and these forms can be accessed easily and without great effort. Online-Participation can also take place on the local. The cities in North Rhine-Westphalia such as Bonn and Cologne provide good examples with people being asked for their opinion and suggestions regarding the use of community funds. As the opportunities for participation expand beyond the traditional forms, citizens, politicians and lawmakers face new challenges. Over the last few years, online participation has increased. Community democracy can be energetic, can involve people through online participation, and allow citizens to follow and participate in political processes and decisions as they unfold. Examples of such participation can be found in very different areas such as construction planning, noise protection and traffic management. Many municipalities seek citizen opinions in different ways, and in different formats, on specific community topics. In this way, citizens can take part in decision-making in community politics. New and innovative forms of online participation are gradually being tested and becoming established. For example, the cities of Cologne and Bonn have budgets for citizen participation for the fourth or the fifth year in a row. If one analyses the participants in these processes, not all people with all possible sociodemographic characteristics tend to participate online. The aim of political online participation should not be to marginalise certain social groups, but to create full participation for all citizens. Men and women should be involved in equal numbers, as should people from all social groups, areas, classes and backgrounds. Citizen participation should be equally accessible for everybody, and should exclude nobody

Increasing Policy Success through the Use of Social Media Cross-Channels for Citizen Political Engagement

In the ubiquitous digitization era, governments increasingly adopt multi-social media channels for the purpose of facilitating citizen engagement towards enhanced government transparency, external political efficacy and policy success. However, little is known about the use of social media cross-channel information-sharing mechanisms for promoting citizen political engagement. We draw on theories of citizen interaction and citizen-centric e-governance to examine the central research question: How can citizens’ become politically engaged through the use of social media cross communication channels? Specifically, we examine and explain YouTube-enabled government-to-citizens interactions and YouTube-Twitter cross-channel information-sharing behaviors among citizens in response to Jakarta, Indonesia’s use of YouTube to inform citizens of the government transparency initiative. We applied social network analysis to examine the structure of and information flows within Twitter social networks formed through the use of cross-channel information-sharing mechanism by YouTube users to tweet the promotion of the YouTube-enabled government transparency videos to their Twitter followers

Anatomy of Advocacy: A Case Study of the White House Petition

Little research has been conducted examining advocacy efforts in the school library field despite the fact that program advocate is a prominent role for school librarians. One element of advocacy is the engagement in political initiatives that may affect school library programs. This case study investigates the effectiveness of one advocacy effort in response to a call for support of a national petition in support of school libraries. Data were collected, and factors underlying this advocacy campaign were analyzed. This report is a case study analysis of a time-constrained advocacy initiative, including the number of participants, demographic factors in relationship to participation, and the interaction of participants on an e-mail discussion list. With the emergent focus on lobbying for the reauthorization of ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act), this study has import for the design and development of successful advocacy efforts now and in the future

Implicações das redes sociais online para a educação da sensibilidade / Implications of online social media to sensitivity education

A violência pode ser identificada na sociedade contemporânea tanto no ambiente virtual quanto no não virtual. Os comportamentos violentos no ambiente não virtual foram analisados por Abib como sendo frutos do conflito entre as sensibilidades primeva e evoluída e propõe, então, o projeto de educação da sensibilidade, que visa restaurar o equilíbrio entre essas sensibilidades. Este trabalho buscou avaliar se as redes sociais online podem contribuir para a educação da sensibilidade cumprindo com seus princípios e estratégias. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa teórico-bibliográfica, cujas fontes foram 34 artigos publicados na revista Computers and Human Behavior; e a análise se pautou nos conceitos fundamentais da educação da sensibilidade. Foram identificados comportamentos favoráveis (pró-sociais) os quais se pautam nos princípios e estratégias da educação da sensibilidade, e comportamentos desfavoráveis (antissociais) que não são condizentes com os princípios e estratégias da educação da sensibilidade. Concluiu-se que as redes sociais online poderiam viabilizar a educação da sensibilidade, mas as possibilidades de anonimato, perfis falsos, e a própria estrutura da Internet pode dificultar o seu desenvolvimento

Ciberdemocracia: Comunicación política en Twitter

Este trabajo se realiza dentro del proyecto #Ciberdemocracia patrocinado por la Universidad Sergio Arboleda (Escuela de Ciencias de la Comunicación), con el fin de conocer ¿qué transformaciones se dan en la comunicación política de una comunidad de práctica por medio de la participación en ecosistemas digitales? Para ello, se planteó una metodología mixta de enfoque cualitativo con carácter aplicado y alcance descriptivo-interpretativo, usando como método de investigación el paradigma hermenéutico interpretativo con medios digitales y la ciberetnografía. La población de estudio fue la de visitantes y residentes digitales interesados o no en la política y en cualquier nivel de conocimiento sobre el tema. Como principales hipótesis se plantearon: que twitter no ha cambiado la forma en la que los políticos se comunican con los ciudadanos y que debido al poco conocimiento de temas políticos de estos últimos ellos no logran ser escuchados por los primeros. La hipótesis de trabajo fue comprobada a lo largo del estudio

Impact of acculturation, online participation and involvement on voting intentions

YesThis study examines the extent to which acculturation and enculturation orientations affect online political participation, political involvement and voting intentions among a sample of Turkish-Dutch immigrants. The study uses data from Turkish-Dutch participants. Structural Equations Modelling (SEM) is employed for assessing the relationships in the conceptualized model. The findings show that enculturation and acculturation influence online participation and involvement, which in turn, are related to voting intentions. The study further examines the mediating role of political involvement and online political participation. Political involvement mediates the relationships between enculturation and acculturation and voting intentions. The results further indicate the effect of online participation on voting intentions is mediated by political involvement. The study findings provide insights into offline and online cultural and civic engagement tendencies among an important immigrant segment that policy makers should consider in the future

Mediating the contributions of Facebook to political participation in Italy and the UK: The role of media and political landscapes

Over the last decade, an increasing number of academic studies have examined how digital technologies can contribute to political participation, with numerous publications focusing on social networking websites. This article adds to this strand of research by tackling the scarcity of cross-national comparative studies in the field. Drawing from an original dataset acquired by combining a cross-national comparative approach and a mixed-methods methodology, this paper explores how media and political landscapes mediate the contributions of Facebook to citizens’ political participation in Italy and the United Kingdom. A participatory gap between Italian and British participants, with Italians displaying higher levels of political participation through Facebook, is found and explained with reference to three contextual factors: the greater diffusion and relevance of other online platforms such as Twitter in the UK; Italian participants’ more negative perception of traditional media linked to the high level of political parallelism typical of the Italian media system; and the presence in Italy of a political party such as the Five Stars Movement making full use of the communicative and organizational affordances of Facebook. The findings indicate that the contributions of Facebook, and digital technologies in general, to political participation must be analysed in context, within the larger patterns they fit into, and cannot be examined in isolation. Such contributions are better understood if considered within the hybrid media system in which different digital platforms interact, merge and compete. Similarly, the political scenarios in which citizens and political parties operate need to be accounted for when looking at the links between the Internet and politics.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0109-545

The perceived role of Twitter in young adults' political participation during the 2018 midterm elections

This study explores the relationship between young adults' use of Twitter and their political participation during the 2018 midterm elections. While contributing to previous literature, this study aims to extend research done at the intersection of social media use and political participation. This study looks at the perceptions of young adults' engagement during the 2018 midterm elections. Qualitative research methods were used to gain insight into how young adults engaged on Twitter during the 2018 midterm elections. Twitter was found to be a platform for voter mobilization among young adults. A variety of factors contribute to this perspective such as the consumption of news content and political messaging that encouraged users to go out and vote. Young adults were also found to have a personal connection to their engagement. Retweets, political beliefs, and candidate messaging are all types of content that reflect this personal connection. Young adults want to consume content that they find relatable, and that is an important part of the Twitter experience for them. While there are questions in the literature surrounding this topic, these findings illustrate that social media may both enable and restrict it's role in promoting democracy. Young adults' perceptions of their use of Twitter use goes beyond social media, but how it can be applied in a larger sense to political messaging in the utilization of Twitter.by Lauren Bond KnudsonIncludes bibliographical reference

Predictors of youth climate collective action: extending the theory of planned behavior framework to examine identity and communication

2020 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Due to the growing concern of the global climate change crisis and young adults responding to this crisis in large numbers by engaging in public-sphere environmental actions, this study seeks to more deeply understand motivations and barriers of this young population to engage in environmental action. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework, which uses attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioral control to predict both behavior and behavioral intention, often in a private-sphere behavioral context, this study aims to extend the TPB by adding additional variables, such as environmental communication, climate change social media use, environmental identity and political identity, that more accurately predict public-sphere collective action. It also examines practical constraints related to time, money and access. Using an online survey of adults aged 18 to 29, this study found that environmental communication, climate change social media use and environmental identity are all strong and significant predictors for both action intentions and action. It also found that political identity is a significant predictor of intentions but not action. Environmental action intentions are significant predictors towards action. Lastly, this study found that demographics, social norms, perceived behavioral control, attitudes and practical constraints are all not significant predictors of environmental action or intentions for this population. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed