Can media literacy education increase digital engagement in politics?
by Joseph Kahne & Benjamin Bowyer
To argue that digital media are now central to civic and political life for young people in the United States is, in many respects, to state the obvious. A nationally representative survey of youth by Common Sense Media (Robb 2017) found that social media are now the most common source of news for young people ages 13–18. And the importance of social media to politics extends far beyond the acquisition of news. Engagement with social media is now central to the ways politics are practiced. Social media provide a primary means through which funds are raised, people are mobilized, pressure is applied to organizations and state institutions, and perspectives are shared and discussed (Allen and Light 2015; Bennett and Segerberg 2012).