Validation of the online political engagement scale in a British population survey

Over the last decade, there has been an ever increasing number of citizens using online media to participate in and engage with politics. Social media sites and online blogs have enabled new opportunities for interactive and user-centered political experiences. Currently, there is a general scarcity of psychometrically validated and standardized instruments that assess politically-related constructs (e.g., political engagement, political participation) in the field of political sciences. The main aim of the present study was to develop a standardized psychometric tool to assess online political engagement among the general population that is valid and reliable. The present study examined the psychometric properties of a 7-item Online Political Engagement Scale (OPEnS) that assesses various online political actions people engage with during election campaigns. To develop the scale, data from the 2010 British Election Survey were used, and a total of 3,075 people participated in an online survey, post-election. The main findings obtained in the present study supported the undimensionality of the online political engagement construct given the results obtained from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The OPEnS appears to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing this phenomenon, and may be useful in studies investigating newer patterns of online political engagement and disengagement

Validation of the Online Political Engagement Scale in a British population survey

Summary. Over the last decade, an ever increasing number of citizens have been using online media to participatein and engage with politics. Social media sites and online blogs have enabled new opportunities for interactive,user-centered political experiences. Currently, there is a general scarcity of psychometrically validated and standardizedinstruments that assess politically-related constructs (e.g., political engagement, political participation) in thefield of political science. The main aim of the present study was to develop a valid, reliable, standardized psychometrictool to assess online political engagement among the general population. The present study examined thepsychometric properties of a seven-item Online Political Engagement Scale (OPEnS) that assesses a range of politicalactions people engage in online during election campaigns. To develop the scale, data from the 2010 BritishElection Survey were used, as well as information collected from a total of 3,075 people who participated in apost-election online survey. The main findings obtained in the present study supported the unidimensional natureof the online political engagement construct given the results obtained from exploratory and confirmatory factoranalyses. The OPEnS appears to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing this phenomenon, and it may beuseful in studies investigating newer patterns of online political engagement and disengagement.Resum. Durant l’última dècada, un nombre cada vegada més gran de ciutadans han estat utilitzant els mitjansde comunicació en línia per participar i comprometre’s amb la política. Les xarxes socials i blocs en línia hanpermès noves oportunitats per a experiències polítiques interactius, centrats en l’usuari. Actualment, hi ha unaescassetat general d’instruments psicomètrics estandarditzats i validats que avaluen constructes relacionats ambla política (per exemple, el compromís polític, participació política) en el camp de la ciència política. L’objectiuprincipal d’aquest estudi era desenvolupar una eina vàlida, fiable i estandarditzada per avaluar la participaciópolítica en línia entre la població general. El present estudi va examinar les propietats psicomètriques d’una escalade set items, l’Escala de Compromís Polític en línia (Online Political Engagement Scale, OPEnS) que avalua unseguit d’accions polítiques en les que les persones s’involucren en línia durant les campanyes electorals. Per desenvoluparl’escala, es van utilitzar les dades de l’Enquesta d’Elecció Britànica de 2010, així com la informació recopiladad’un total de 3.075 persones que van participar en una enquesta en línia després de les eleccions. Elsprincipals resultats obtinguts en el present estudi van recolzar la naturalesa unidimensional del constructe decompromís polític en línia, donat els resultats obtinguts de les anàlisis factorial exploratòria i confirmatòria.L’OPEnS sembla ser un instrument vàlid i fiable per avaluar aquest fenomen, i pot ser útil en estudis de recerca denous patrons de participació i no participació política en línia

Networking activism: implications for Greece

The outbreak of December 2008 against police brutality through a wave of demonstrations and street protests in Athens, which was strongly advocated by protest activities and practices across the world, addresses several issues in relation to the transformative potentials of mediated collective action. The paper critically evaluates different accounts of December events, probing then into thevery networking of that movement. From this perspective, it points out another aspect of the local-global interplay in protest culture along new mediating practices (beyond the creation of transnational publics), that of the implications of transnational networking for local social activism and identification, addressing relevant questions in the Greek context

Alternative and Mainstream Media

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Historically, alternative media have been viewed as fundamental, albeit at times culturally peripheral, forces in social change. In this book, however, Kenix argues that these media do not uniformly subvert the hierarchies of access that are so central to mainstream media - in fact, their journalistic norms and routines have always been based on the professional standards of the mainstream. Kenix goes on to posit the perception of 'mainstream' and 'alternative' as a misconception. She argues that, although alternative media can - and do - construct distinct alternative communications, they have always existed on the same continuum as the mainstream and the two will continue to converge. Through comparative analysis, this book argues that many alternative and mainstream media are merging to create a continuous spectrum rooted in commercial ideology. Indeed, much of what is now considered alternative media actually draws very little from principles of the independent press, whereas many contemporary mainstream media now use communication techniques more commonly associated with media that do not operate for financial gain. This book puts forward a controversial but convincing argument around the relationship between alternative and mainstream media, drawing on examples from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand to strengthen and develop the central premise

Environmental Literacy and Distance Learning: A Window to the Future of Education in Ontario

Supervisor: Michael GismondiIncreasingly, scholars claim that formal education fails to provide for either the current or future needs of our society and, because of this, the field of education finds itself is at a crossroads. During the last two centuries, it has evolved into a knot of specialized and compartmentalized pedagogies that maintain a respectful distance from one another, often competing for significance in a world of economic globalization. The gap emerging between curriculum delivery and social need is of significance in this thesis. It has been argued that education reinforces unsustainability and that the missing components in today’s curricula can be addressed through a focus on and inclusion of environmental and sustainability education principles. Providing opportunities for learners to engage in critical thinking, self-reflection, open discourse and real world problem solving reinforces the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach in today’s society. It is necessary to problematize the compartmentalization created by years of specialization. This thesis reports on the environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour findings of the first Ontario Environmental Literacy Audit. The Audit affirms the importance that Ontarians place on their environment, and it simultaneously identifies the need for changes within our system of education if we are to produce environmentally literate citizens. The Audit reinforces the need for educational paradigm change and, emerging from this reality, distance education is identified as a viable method for the field of education to progress and retain its relevance – both as a necessary social institution and as a means by which to do so more sustainably. This thesis recommends the use of a model that incorporates the values of sustainable learning with the practices of distance education in content research, course development and instructional design. A series of recommendations for stakeholder action is also presented.education, distance education, environment, environmental education, environmental literacy, literacy, sustainability, sustainable development, sustainable learning, paradigm change, Ontari

Alternative and Mainstream Media

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Historically, alternative media have been viewed as fundamental, albeit at times culturally peripheral, forces in social change. In this book, however, Kenix argues that these media do not uniformly subvert the hierarchies of access that are so central to mainstream media - in fact, their journalistic norms and routines have always been based on the professional standards of the mainstream. Kenix goes on to posit the perception of 'mainstream' and 'alternative' as a misconception. She argues that, although alternative media can - and do - construct distinct alternative communications, they have always existed on the same continuum as the mainstream and the two will continue to converge. Through comparative analysis, this book argues that many alternative and mainstream media are merging to create a continuous spectrum rooted in commercial ideology. Indeed, much of what is now considered alternative media actually draws very little from principles of the independent press, whereas many contemporary mainstream media now use communication techniques more commonly associated with media that do not operate for financial gain. This book puts forward a controversial but convincing argument around the relationship between alternative and mainstream media, drawing on examples from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand to strengthen and develop the central premise

E-government in Europe

This book traces the development of e-government and its applications across Europe, exploring the effects of information and communication technology (ICTs) upon political action and processes. Explores a range of concepts and topics underpinning e-government in Europe: the degree to which e-government translates into genuine reform of government and public administration the dual role of the EU as both a provider of e-government through its own internal activities and also as a facilitator or aggregator in the way it seeks to engender change and promote its ethos in member states across the EU cyberterrorism and its use both by terrorists and governments to pursue political agendas. Featuring in-depth case studies on the progress of e-government in the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Hungary, and Estonia. These case studies address the above issues, whilst at the same time highlighting commonality and diversity in practice and the paradox between top-down strategies and the effort to engage wider civil participation via e-government. e-Government in Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of public policy, politics, media and communication studies, computing and information and communications technologies and European studies

The echoes of grassroots media practices in Greece: a sociological approach

This thesis probes into grassroots media projects by addressing them in a broad theoretical framework that evaluates such projects in macro terms, along the interplay between 'public sphere' and 'civil society', as well as in micro terms, across the 'lived experience' of their practice, on the grounds of the expression and enactment of 'citizenship' correspondingly. From this perspective, the study researches media projects that are implemented `on the margins' in Greece, drawing both on their contribution to and intervention in the public and political life. By evaluating these projects in a resonant context the study prioritizes the 'agents', citizens/social groups, who are engaged in their practice. Using empirical evidence from fieldwork conducted in Greece in 2003 involving: indepth interviews with people engaged (forty four participants) in the practice of diverse, heterogeneous media projects - one newspaper, two periodicals, three pirate radio stations and three Internet sites - this thesis evaluates the limits and the challenges of the practice of such projects in terms of their contribution to the public sphere and their intervention in the sphere of 'the political'. It argues that while such projects constitute a realm for the representation of various social domains, collectives/social groups and their discourses, as well as, for their intervention in civic life, at the same time their practice is entrapped in traditional 'politics' that deter the expansion of these projects, and negate the potential their practice encompasses for the constitution of `the political' in the realm of everyday life as well

The echoes of grassroots media practices in Greece : a sociological approach

This thesis probes into grassroots media projects by addressing them in a broad theoretical framework that evaluates such projects in macro terms, along the interplay between 'public sphere' and 'civil society', as well as in micro terms, across the 'lived experience' of their practice, on the grounds of the expression and enactment of 'citizenship' correspondingly. From this perspective, the study researches media projects that are implemented `on the margins' in Greece, drawing both on their contribution to and intervention in the public and political life. By evaluating these projects in a resonant context the study prioritizes the 'agents', citizens/social groups, who are engaged in their practice. Using empirical evidence from fieldwork conducted in Greece in 2003 involving: indepth interviews with people engaged (forty four participants) in the practice of diverse, heterogeneous media projects - one newspaper, two periodicals, three pirate radio stations and three Internet sites - this thesis evaluates the limits and the challenges of the practice of such projects in terms of their contribution to the public sphere and their intervention in the sphere of 'the political'. It argues that while such projects constitute a realm for the representation of various social domains, collectives/social groups and their discourses, as well as, for their intervention in civic life, at the same time their practice is entrapped in traditional 'politics' that deter the expansion of these projects, and negate the potential their practice encompasses for the constitution of `the political' in the realm of everyday life as well.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo