Social media and online communities expose youth to political conversation, but also to incivility and conflict.

The internet and social media now mean that young people are more able to engage with, and participate in the political process. But does this engagement also expose young people to a greater risk of online abuse? In new research Ellen Middaugh investigates the exposure to conflict and incivility of young people who engage politically online. She finds that exposure to online conflict is common, and is associated with participatory media, and that many youth also see no problem with escalating language and personal insults in online political conversations

The Social and Emotional Components of Gaming. A Response to “The Challenge of Gaming for Democratic Education”

This response considers the role of video games in promoting the social and emotional aspects of civic education and engagement. Specifically, it discusses how design choices in iCivics and video games generally may impact students’ emotional responses to issues and other people, sense of internal efficacy, and social connectedness

Civic Media Literacy in a Transmedia World: Balancing Personal Experience, Factual Accuracy and Emotional Appeal as Media Consumers and Circulators

Amid growing concerns over the role of “fake news” in civic and political life, efforts to understand how to best prepare youth to evaluate and reason about online sources have gained a sense of urgency. However, less attention has been paid to how such skills are used in the context of the broader array of information behavior that is typical of civic and political participation today—particularly in the circulation of information. Through thematic analysis of interviews and think aloud tasks with n=24 urban high school students reasoning through the processes of search, credibility analysis and circulating information for the purposes of issue advocacy, two considerations for civic media literacy education emerged. First, greater attention is needed to educating youth to coordinate the considerations for factual accuracy with the social and emotional components of civic media, particularly once they move beyond the task of being asked to assess media and into the tasks of searching for or choosing to share media. Second, greater attention is needed on circulation in civic media literacy and what it means to share information ethically and responsibly

New Media and Youth Political Action

To rigorously consider the impact of new media on the political and civic behavior of young people, The MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics (YPP) developed and fielded one of the first large-scale, nationally representative studies of new media and politics among young people. The two principal researchers for the survey component of the YPP, Cathy J. Cohen of the University of Chicago and Joseph Kahne of Mills College, oversaw a research team that surveyed nearly 3,000 respondents between the ages of 15 and 25 years of age. Unlike any prior study of youth and new media, this study included large numbers of black, Latino, and Asian American respondents, which allows for unique and powerful statistical comparisons across race with a focus on young people.Until now there has been limited opportunity and data available to comprehensively explore the relationship between new media and the politics of young people. One of the few entities to engage in this type of rigorous analysis has been the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The YPP study expands on this field-leading work by including an extensive battery of items addressing participatory politics and adequate numbers of participants from different racial and ethnic groups, thus allowing for analysis of how different groups of young people were engaged with new media in the political realm.The YPP study findings suggest that fundamental changes in political expectations and practices may be occurring -- especially for youth. The analysis of the data collected reveals that youth are taking advantage of an expanded set of participatory practices in the political realm in ways that amplify their voice and sometimes their influence, thus increasing the ways young people participate in political life. The YPP researchers label this expanded set of opportunities and actions participatory politics

Teens, Video Games, and Civics

Analyzes survey findings on trends in teenagers' video gaming, the social context, the role of parents and monitoring, and the link between specific gaming experiences and civic activities. Explores gaming's potential as civic learning opportunities

The Civic Potential of Video Games

This report focuses on the civic aspects of video game play among youth. According to a 2006 survey, 58 percent of young people aged 15 to 25 were civically "disengaged," meaning that they participated in fewer than two types of either electoral activities (defined as voting, campaigning, etc.) or civic activities (for example, volunteering). Kahne and his coauthors are interested in what role video games may or may not play in this disengagement.Until now, most research in the field has considered how video games relate to children's aggression and to academic learning. Digital media scholars suggest, however, that other social outcomes also deserve attention. For example, as games become more social, some scholars argue that they can be important spheres in which to foster civic development. Others disagree, suggesting that games, along with other forms of Internet involvement, may in fact take time away from civic and political engagement. Drawing on data from the 2006 survey, the authors examine the relationship between video game play and civic development. They call for further research on teen gaming experiences so that we can understand and promote civic engagement through video games

Navigating Context Collapse: A Strengths-based Approach to Building Youth Civic Empowerment. A Response to “Blended Spaces: Reimagining Civic Education in a Digital Era”

In the article “Blended Spaces: Reimagining Civic Education in a Digital Era,” the authors joined a new area of research on civic media literacy, or the capacity to use media with civic intentionality. Building on previous scholarship that examined how to support youth capacity for effective civic inquiry, dialogue, expression, and action in the digital age, the authors contributed to this literature by usefully elaborating on the phenomenon of “context collapse” and the challenges this blurring of the boundaries between public and private spheres may present, particularly in the liminal spaces where the shifting boundaries most clearly depart from the pre-internet era. A central premise of the feature article is that youth and adults are entering into this context with “no training.” However, it has been more than a decade since social media emerged, and we respond by pointing out that in some sense, youth have been training for this for most of their lives. In our response, we reinforce many of the major points of the feature article, but we elaborate to draw focus on youth-driven practices and adaptations that have emerged in our own research and discuss the implications for civic education

BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL FOR CIVIC AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT: THE POTENTIAL OF HIGH‐SCHOOL CIVICS COURSES

We employed a quasi‐experimental design using pre/post surveys and comparisons with control groups to examine the impact of the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s CityWorks (U.S.A.) curriculum. In particular, we assessed its ability to further democratic aims by supporting the development of three forms of social capital: norms of civic participation, social trust, and knowledge of social networks. Our evaluation indicates that this curriculum and several of its curricular features (use of simulations, role models, service learning, learning about problems in the community, learning how local government works, and personal relevance) have the potential to further the democratic purposes of education. Key words: democratic education, simulations, role models, service‐learning. Se servant d’un design quasi‐expérimental faisant appel à des sondages en prétest et post‐test et à des comparaisons avec des groupes‐contrôles, les auteurs analysent dans cet article l’impact du programme américain Constitutional Rights Foundation’s CityWorks. Ils se penchent notamment sur son aptitude à promouvoir davantage des objectifs démocratiques en appuyant le développement de trois formes de capital social : les normes de la participation citoyenne, la confiance sociale et la connaissance des réseaux sociaux. D’après les auteurs, ce programme et plusieurs de ses caractéristiques (recours à des simulations, modèles de comportement, apprentissage du service, analyse de problèmes communautaires, étude du mode de fonctionnement du gouvernement local et pertinence pour les élèves) sont susceptibles de promouvoir l’éducation à la démocratie. Mots clés: éducation à la démocratie, simulations, modèles de comportement, apprentissage du service.

CityWorks Evaluation Summary

This report summarizes findings from our study of the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) CityWorks curriculum. This high school government curriculum was designed to respond to growing recognition of the need to promote commitments and capacities associated with civic engagement. Our data consists of pre/post surveys from CityWorks classes and control classrooms. We also observed classrooms and collected interview data through focus groups

The Civic Potential of Video Games

This report draws from the 2008 Pew Teens, Video Games, and Civics Survey, a national survey of youth and their experiences with video games done in partnership with Amanda Lenhart at the Pew Internet and American Life Project, with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. That survey led to the report, “Teens, Video Games, and Civics,” which examines the nature of young people’s video game play as well as the context and mechanics of their play. In addition to examining the relationship between gaming and youth civic engagement, “Teens, Video Games, and Civics” also provides a benchmark for video and online gaming among young people on a national level and the first broad, impartial look at the size and scope of young people’s general gaming habits