gada casma oxford connected life oxcl16

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: info@gada.org.ukWebsite: www.gada.org.uk