Full Description
This book discusses the implications of recent innovations in information and communication technology for civic and political engagement. The international mix of contributions offers insights across a broad spectrum of studies into the form of engagement: explaining the reasons, incentives and motivations for engaging, and the different forms and levels of engagement; contrasting traditional and non-traditional forms of engagement and how they interlink; and asking why people utilize or avoid certain forms of engagement.
It is a must-read for any scholar interested in the impact of social media on citizens' propensity to get involved in political actions. It depicts the role that parties, organizations and peers play in mobilizing or demobilizing others and how online behaviour can act as a springboard into what might be called real-world politics. The book gathers together prominent scholars, who offer their understanding of social and political phenomena and give theoretical and empirical insights into the highly complex questions around political participation in the digital age.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Political Communication.
Contents
Introduction - Digital Politics: Mobilization, Engagement, and Participation 1. Three Prompts for Collective Action in the Context of Digital Media 2. What Drives Political Participation?Motivations andMobilization in a Digital Age 3. Social Media Social Capital, Offline Social Capital, and Citizenship: Exploring Asymmetrical Social Capital Effects 4. Online Mobilization in Comparative Perspective: Digital Appeals and Political Engagement in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom 5. Friend or Foe? Digital Technologies and the Changing Nature of Party Membership 6. I Shield Myself From Thee: Selective Avoidance on Social Media During Political Protests
