Rethinking Digital Media and Citizenship: Conditions,Contexts,and Consequences

A substantial body of scholarship has long tackled how traditional and newly emerging information and communication technologies foster an informed, efficacious, and engaged citizenry. Despite accumulated research on digital media and citizenship, there are a number of questions that need to be answered, including, but not limited to, how digital media use and civic engagement can be conceptualized, operationalized, and theorized across various theoretical perspectives in the current digital media environment; the extent to which the use of digital, social, mobile, and traditional media affect civic engagement; and how such influences vary across communities of places, interests, and practices as well as different social groups.

Contributors to this special issue address these questions in varied fashions with unique theoretical, conceptual, and operational approaches. Liu, Chen, Ognyanova, Nah, and Ball-Rokeach examined civic implications of a hyperlocal news site in an ethnically and linguistically diverse community. Integrating communication infrastructure theory and an audience-centered approach to civic participation, they tested and contrasted three models—ecological, audience-centered, and reciprocal models. Analyzing data based on a probability sample of community residents served by the hyperlocal news site, they offer nuanced insights into the role hyperlocal news media can play in civic participation.

Edgerly, Thorson, and Wells explored young adults’ political learning during the 2016 U.S. presidential primary elections. They used two unique data sets to address this subject. Using a rolling cross-sectional survey design, they surveyed a sample of American young adults each day during a 3-week period. Using news databases, they constructed aggregate measures of news coverage—the volume of news stories about political events and the volume of news stories about political events shared on Facebook. Their analyses showed a strong relationship between how much news stories about political events were shared on Facebook and young adults’ political learning.

Nah and Yamamoto examined an implication of today’s digitally connected information environment. Based on communication infrastructure theory and the concept of integrated connectedness to a storytelling network, they put forth an integrated approach to media use, information seeking, and political discussion. Their analyses of survey data demonstrated that integrated news use, or the degree to which various media platforms are integrated for news consumption, was positively associated with civic participation both directly and indirectly via the integrated measures of political information seeking and discussion.

Beam, Hmielowski, and Hutchens addressed the issue of digital inequalities in terms of news consumption. Survey data collected prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election confirmed the existence of skill-based gaps in news reading and sharing. However, the relationships between Internet skills and news behaviors were moderated by political interest, an indicator of motivation, and education, an indicator of cognitive ability. The observed skill-based digital inequalities favored those with greater political interest, whereas the inequalities were reduced for those with less education. The study provides useful insights into what factors may condition the utility of digital media in citizenship.

Skoric, Zhu, and Lin conducted a comparative study of political unfriending/unfollowing on social media. In addition to psychological, political, and media-related factors, they integrated cultural components to understand what makes people engage in politically motivated selective avoidance on social media. Using survey data collected in Hong Kong and Taiwan, they found a significant difference between the two countries, with unfriending/unfollowing greater in Hong Kong. They also found that levels of collectivism were negatively related to selective avoidance on social media in both countries.

Gil de Zúñiga, Diehl, and Ardèvol-Abreu assessed the role of news consumption, citizens’ evaluation of journalists’ performance, and levels of press freedom at the country level in civic participation. Their analyses of survey data collected in 22 countries confirmed the role of news consumption in civic participation, even in countries with nonautonomous media systems. Individuals’ evaluations of journalistic performance and country-level press freedom moderated the relationship between news consumption and civic participation. They advanced existing literature by simultaneously assessing person- and country-level media influences on civic participation.

Baek argues that digital media expand the ability of citizens to participate in geographically dispersed large-scale social movements as a member of the local and global communities. Using the Occupy movement as a case, she examined a linkage of local and global citizenship and local and global participation in the Occupy movement. Her study drew on data from a survey of U.S. participants of the movement. The study showed that local and global citizenship was uniquely related to participation in the movement and that social network sites played an important role in this process by fostering a sense of citizenship in both local and global contexts.

A rich body of research has demonstrated the importance of digital media in civic life. This special issue brings a unique perspective to the existing scholarship, with an interest in social conditions and contexts surrounding the civic utility of digital media. We hope that this volume provides new venues for continued scholarly attention to this important subject.