Toward a model of political participation among young adults: the role of local groups and ICT use

ABSTRACT

Civic engagement in politics and public affairs lies at the heart of participatory models of democracy [26]. Prior studies have found that politically interested citizens use information and communication technology (ICT) to facilitate and sometimes augment their political and civic engagement [17][8][29][15] [16][34][22][21]. In the areas of political expression and civic engagement support, local groups' ICTs play important roles for communication and information sharing [16]. Do these findings also apply to young adults in local groups? In particular, earlier research about young adults' political participation shows that they increasingly turn to ICT to gather political information and as a channel of engagement [31]. This study examines the interplay of individual and local group factors for young adults by using household survey data from the town of Blacksburg, VA and environs in 2005. In this research, we present findings about who these young adults are and what they are doing with ICT for political and civic engagement in local groups. Our findings show that local group affiliation is positively associated with online political and civic engagement among young adults. Furthermore, young adults who are affiliated with local groups are more likely to report that the Internet has helped them become more involved in local issues that interest them. For a more in depth investigation of young adults affiliated with local groups, this paper suggests a framework of multilevel analysis.

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Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing