1.
Online habits, attitudes, and needs
of civic engaged young people
Ansgar Koene
HORIZON Digital Economy Research,
University of Nottingham
Ayten El Kashef
Gada

2.
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

3.
The trouble with young people today …

4.
Teenagers’ engagement with social issues
and politics

5.
Online civic-/political-engagement
eGovernment/mGovernment
eVoting
Open data
Arab Spring
LiquidDemocracy
Onine petitions
Social Media
discussion/action
groups

6.
Barriers to youth civic engagement
Results from user research (phase 1)
2015/16

7.
First things first:
Why
How?
What?

8.
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

9.
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

10.
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

11.
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

12.
Main barriers to online civic information
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Lack of independent/objective information Overload of poor quality information
Active citizen Netizen Observer

13.
Barriers to online interaction
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Discussions are dominated by uninformed opinions Discussions get personal and aggressive
Active citizen Netizen Observer

14.
Main barriers to action
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Hard to know who to support Activists are too radical/partisian My involvement wouldn't make a difference Poor communication with activists
Active citizen Netizen Observer

15.
Next steps

16.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch for further information:
E-mail address: info@gada.org.uk
Website: www.gada.org.uk