Online habits, attitudes, and needs of civic engaged young
peopleAnsgar Koene
HORIZON Digital Economy Research, University of Nottingham
Ayten El KashefGada
The trouble with young people today …
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” – (attributed to) Socrates
The trouble with young people today …
Teenagers’ engagement with social issues and politics
Online civic-/political-engagement
eGovernment/mGovernment
eVoting
Open data
Arab Spring
LiquidDemocracy
Onine petitions
Social Media discussion/action groups
Barriers to youth civic engagementResults from user research (phase 1)
2015/16
First things first:
Why
How?
What?
Barriers to youth civic engagement
• User research started in 2015
• May 2016 survey on modes, motivations and barriers to youth civic engagement (107 responses)
• This presentation focuses on the barriers
Level of education
8%
57%
35%
Level of education (target group)
A-level
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Target group: 18-25 year olds
Survey respondents not representative of target group:• Prevalence of highly
educated• Most are currently in
education
Levels of engagement (sub-groups)Engaged observers Outspoken netizens Active citizens
Main activity Seek and consume information
Receive, share and discuss information
Provide information on IRL activities
Main motivation Understanding the facts/personal growth
Raising awareness by sharing content /discussing
Raising awareness and gathering support for a cause
Potential for communication
Not outspoken Very opinionated on a range of issues
Structured message along organisation/party lines
Attitude Detached/intellectual demeanor
Direct and persuasive communication
Goal-oriented interaction
How do young people engage?• Information reading, posting and sharing of information from
various news sources
• Interaction engaging in discussions with friends or issue-groups , opinion-forming
• Action supporting or joining an activist group or a cause, organising an activity
Main barriers to online civic information
Lack of independent/objective information Overload of poor quality information0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Active citizen Netizen Observer
Barriers to online interaction
Discussions are dominated by uninformed opinions Discussions get personal and aggressive0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Active citizen Netizen Observer
Main barriers to action
Hard to know who to support Activists are too radical/partisian My involvement wouldn't make a difference Poor communication with activists0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Active citizen Netizen Observer
Next steps
Please do not hesitate to get in touch for further information:
E-mail address: [email protected]: www.gada.org.uk
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