The Networked Young Citizen

Brian D. Loader is Associate-Director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) based at the University of York, UK. His academic interests are focussed around the emergence of new information and communications technologies (ICTs), such as the Internet, and the social, political and economic factors shaping their development and diffusion, and their implications for social, economic, governmental and cultural change. He is General Editor of the international journal Information, Communication and Society and has published extensively in this field. Recent books include Cyberprotest:New Media, Citizens and Social Movements, (Routledge, 2004); Young Citizens in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2007); Digital Welfare for the Third Age (Routledge, 2008).

This collection, comprising contributions from a number of leading international scholars in this field, examines such themes as the possible effects of social media use upon patterns of political socialization; the potential of social media to ameliorate young people's political inequality; the role of social media communications for enhancing the civic education curriculum; and evidence for social media manifesting new forms of political engagement and participation by young citizens.

1. Introduction: The Networked Young Citizen: Social Media, Political Participation and Civic Engagement; Brian D. Loader, Ariadne Vromen and Michael Xenos. PART I: Political Culture, Socialization and Social Media Adoption. 2. The Great Equalizer? Patterns of Social Media Use and Youth Political Engagement; Michael Xenos, Ariadne Vromen and Brian D. Loader. 3. Spaces for Public Orientation? Longitudinal Effects of Internet Use in Adolescence; Mats Ekström, Tobias Olsson, and Adam Shehata. 4. Political Influence across Generations: Partisanship and Candidate Evaluations in the 2008 election; Emily Vraga, , Leticia Bode, Jung Hwan Yang, Stephanie Edgerly, Kjerstin Thorson, Chris Wells, and Dhavan V. Shah. 5. Young citizens and the fine art of disengaging online; Kjerstin Thorson. PART II: Civics and Citizenship Education. 6. Australian reflections on learning to be citizens in and with the social web; Suzanne Mellor. 7. Perceptions of students and teachers in England about how social media are used (and how they could be used) in schools and elsewhere; Ian Davies and Edda Sant. PART III: Agency, Mobilization and the Voice of the Young Citizen. 8. "The Outraged Young": Young Europeans, Civic Engagement and the Social Media in a Time of Crisis; JamesSloam. 9. The Contribution of Websites and Blogs to the Students' Protest Communication Tactics during the 2010 UK University Occupations; Yannis Theocharis