Democracy is based on the belief that the media gets the attention of voters. But is this plausible in an age of multiplying media, disillusionment with the political system and time-scarcity? This book addresses this question, and charts experiences of 'public connection'.

Democracy is based on the belief that the media gets the attention of voters. But is this plausible in an age of multiplying media, disillusionment with the political system and time-scarcity? This book addresses this question, and charts experiences of 'public connection'.

Recent technological advancements have made it possible to use moderated discussion threads on social media to provide citizens with a means of discussion concerning issues that involve them. With the renewed interest in devising new methods for public involvement, the use of such communication tools has caused some concern on how to properly apply them for strategic purposes. Using New Media for Citizen Engagement and Participation provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of how social media should be added to public-involvement activities such as citizen juries, public deliberation, and citizen panels. Readers will be offered insights into the critical design considerations for planning, carrying out, and assessing public-involvement initiatives. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as citizen journalism, online activism, and public discourse, this book is ideally designed for corporate professionals, broadcasters, news writers, column editors, politicians, policy managers, government administrators, academicians, researchers, practitioners, and students in the fields of political science, communications, sociology, mass media and broadcasting, public administration, and community-service learning.

One of the most difficult problems facing Western democracy today is the decline in citizens' political engagement. There are many elements that contribute to this, including fundamental socio-cultural changes. The book summarizes these contexts and situates itself within them, while focusing on the media's key role in shaping the character of civic engagement. In particular, it examines the new interactive electronic media in terms of their civic potential. Looking at the evolution of the media landscape, the book interrogates key notions such citizenship, public sphere, agency, identity, deliberation, and practice, and offers a multi-dimensional analytic framework called 'civic cultures'. This framework is then applied to several settings, including television, popular culture, journalism, the EU, and global activism, to illuminate the role of the media in deflecting and enhancing political engagement, as well as in contributing to new forms of political involvement and new understandings of what constitutes the political.

This study attempts to explain reasons that underlie the positive correlation between media use and increased levels of engagement by relying upon the agenda-setting theory. The models set forth suggest the following sequence: News attention as influenced by several antecedent variables affects agenda-setting effects on the readers/viewers; in turn, agenda-setting effects trigger strong attitudes among the public and, finally, strong attitudes lead to various types of civic behaviors. The individual level of statistical analysis employed in this research is based on the 2004 ANES data along with a content analysis of stories from the New York Times and NBC's Nightly News. Fit statistics of four models -- specifically, first-level newspaper, first-level TV, second-level newspaper and second-level TV -- indicated that all of the structural models were retainable, meaning that the hypothesized sequence reflects well the data. Especially, every direct effect along the chain - ranging from media use to agenda-setting, from agenda-setting to attitudes strength, and from attitudes strength to engagement - was significant. Indirect and total effects of agenda-setting for political and civic participation were all found to be significant. Agenda-setting effects operated as a mediator between media use and civic engagement, as hypothesized. In sum, the effects of agenda-setting may be viewed as related to both the behavioral and the cognitive levels so that: What the public thinks about something can be extended to what the public does about something.

The Occupy movement and the Arab Spring have brought global attention to the potential of social media for empowering otherwise marginalized groups. This book addresses questions like what happens after the moment of protest and global visibility and whether social media can also help sustain civic engagement beyond protest.

Engaging youth in civic life has become a central concern to a broad array of researchers in a variety of academic fields as well to policy makers and practitioners globally. This book is both international and multidisciplinary, consisting of three sections that respectively cover conceptual issues, developmental and educational topics, and methodological and measurement issues. Broad in its coverage of topics, this book supports scholars, philanthropists, business leaders, government officials, teachers, parents, and community practitioners in their drive to engage more young people in community and civic actions.