Thesis New Participation, New Perspectives? Young
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THESIS NEW PARTICIPATION, NEW PERSPECTIVES? YOUNG ADULTS’ POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT USING FACEBOOK Submitted by Katharine E. Van Wyngarden Department of Journalism and Technical Communication In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Science Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Spring 2012 Master’s Committee: Advisor: Rosa Mikeal Martey Pete Seel Martín Carcasson ABSTRACT NEW PARTICIPATION, NEW PERSPECTIVES? YOUNG ADULTS’ POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT USING FACEBOOK This thesis was designed to explore how young adults understand and experience political engagement on Facebook. Some scholars suggest that traditional, active forms of political participation may be declining, creating an uncertain future for democracy. However, other findings suggest that young adults may be choosing to engage in politics through non-traditional avenues, including social networking websites. To explore this possibility, this thesis used 20 in-depth interviews to investigate the nature of youth’s political participation on Facebook. The data suggest that Facebook is a meaningful space for political engagement among youth, but that engagement on Facebook is not necessarily comparable to traditional definitions of participation. Rather, it is helpful to think about Facebook as a place for political expression and talk. In addition, the data suggest that scholars should not assume study participants share the same definition of politics with each other or with researchers. As a result, this study argues that scholars should adjust their measures of political engagement on Facebook to account for its features that make political participation unique, rather than assuming that non-traditional participation via social networking websites has limited value or meaning. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this thesis would not have been possible without the help of many important people. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Martey, for guiding, challenging, and encouraging me. Her enthusiasm greatly fueled my own excitement for this project. I would also like to thank Dr. Seel and Dr. Carcasson for their guidance and encouragement as part of my committee. I am grateful to my family for their support throughout this sometimes difficult process. In particular, I am thankful for my husband, who always believed that I would complete my thesis, and my parents, who showed me the value of continued education and academic scholarship. Finally, I thank the Lord for demonstrating his grace and faithfulness by allowing me to achieve this goal. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. Introduction...................................................................................................1 Research Questions ..........................................................................................................3 Organization of Thesis .....................................................................................................4 CHAPTER 2. Traditional and Everyday Participation: New Modes, New Measures .........6 Traditional Political Participation ....................................................................................7 Declines in Traditional Political Participation .................................................................8 An Alternative Perspective: Everyday Political Participation .........................................9 Weaknesses of Traditional Political Participation Measures .........................................15 Political Talk and the Challenge of Measuring Facebook Participation ........................20 CHAPTER 3. The Internet, Facebook, and Social Norms of Participation .......................25 Importance of the Internet for Political Participation ....................................................25 The Internet and Political Participation: Three Important Questions ............................27 What about the Internet and Everyday Participation? ...................................................31 Social Space, Social Norms: The Appropriateness of Facebook Participation..............39 So You Changed Your Profile Picture...So What? .........................................................45 Research Questions ........................................................................................................48 Research Objectives .......................................................................................................49 CHAPTER 4. Methods ......................................................................................................50 Qualitative Interviews: Depth and Meaning ..................................................................50 Research Design .............................................................................................................53 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................57 CHAPTER 5. Results.........................................................................................................60 RQ1.A: Definitions of Politics on Facebook .................................................................60 RQ2A: Social Norms and Political Topics ....................................................................65 RQ1.B: Political Action Definitions ..............................................................................69 RQ2.B: The Acceptability of Action ..............................................................................73 RQ1.C: Functions of Participation .................................................................................75 RQ2.C: The Acceptability of Functions and Motives ....................................................80 RQ1.D: Language and Political Participation ................................................................86 RQ2.D: The Acceptability of Language ........................................................................93 CHAPTER 6. Discussion .................................................................................................100 Facebook Participation: Difficulty of Defining Politics ..............................................101 Social Norms of Participation ......................................................................................104 New Measurements ......................................................................................................109 CHAPTER 7. Conclusion ................................................................................................ 113 Future Projects ............................................................................................................. 116 Limitations ................................................................................................................... 117 iv REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 119 APPENDIX A: Invitation to Participate ..........................................................................139 APPENDIX B: Consent to Participate in a Research Study ............................................140 APPENDIX C: Interview Questions: 1st Interview .........................................................143 APPENDIX D: Interview Questions: 2nd Interview .......................................................144 APPENDIX E: Screenshots of Facebook Activities for the Second Interviews ..............147 v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION For decades, scholars of political participation have emphasized the importance of certain kinds of political activities. Voting, campaigning, and donating money are central to many traditional measures of political participation, and are seen by many scholars as the foundation of successful democracy (Barber, 1984; Berelson, Lazarsfeld, & McPhee, 1954; Dahl, 1989; Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1944; Milbrath, 1965; Putnam, 2000; Verba & Nie, 1972). Recently, however, studies have demonstrated that these types of political participation seem to be declining, especially among younger individuals (Delli Carpini, 2000; Harris, Wyn, & Younes, 2010; Putnam, 1995; 2000; Zukin, Keeter, Andolina, Jenkins, & Delli Carpini, 2006). But how much do we really know about these declines in participation? Is it possible that traditional measures of political participation do not capture all of the ways that citizens are participating today? Perhaps this measured decline results not from a less active and interested citizenry, but instead represents a shift in how and where people participate that is not captured by traditional measures. Scholars such as Bang (2005) and Bang and Sørensen (1999) have argued that political participation is not declining, but rather is being carried out in different ways. They suggest that citizens are finding more practical, flexible, and individual ways to address causes or issues that they find meaningful. Other scholars have found evidence that youth are using social networking websites such as Facebook to address political and social concerns (Smith, Schlozman, Verba, & Brady, 2009; Schlozman, Verba, & Brady, 2010).Young internet users ages 18- 1 24 are more likely to post political content on social networking sites like Facebook than any other age group, and are least likely to use the internet for more traditional political activities, such as donating money (Smith et al., 2009). If new forms of political participation are taking place on social networking sites, what do they look like? Recently, many Facebook users found that the