new media, new civics
TRANSCRIPT
New Media, New Civics?Ethan Zuckerman (@ethanz), MIT Center for Civic Media
Oxford Internet Institute,December 6, 2013
“Thank you, Facebook” – Tahrir Square (Reuters)
visualization by Elena Agapie
civics in crisis
48% of US adults take part in a civic activity39% spoke out using offline methods34% spoke out using online methods39% engaged in some political activity via SNS
Online users don’t distinguish betweenonline and offline action
What correlates to civic participationis socioeconomic status
112th Congress10% approval61 bills passed
of 3914 proposed
If young people are disenchanted with politics, rightly or wrongly, how do we help them become
effective civic actors?
Are we bad citizens in an old paradigm,or inept citizens in a new one?
participatory civics
$818m raised
4.9 million backers
civiccrowdfunding
civics is passionate
thin thick
voice
instrumental
thin thick
voice
instrumental
thin thick
voice
instrumental
thin thick
voice
instrumental
The Dream Nine
Brennan Novak
Smári McCarthy
Bjarni Einarsson
Carmen Rios
Khalida BrohiSughar Center
norms
code
markets
laws
norms
code
markets
laws
thin thick
voice
instrumental
thin thick
voice
instrumental
Voice leads to (instrumental) engagement
image by John D. Fisher
Voice begets voice
image by John D. Fisher
Voice sets agenda
image by John D. Fisher
Voice builds movements
image by John D. Fisher
thin thick
voice
instrumental
Zeynep Tufekçi
“Sen de Gel” – “You, too, come”
interlocking public
the pointillist public sphere
Civics is changing. How do we help the young people like those inspired by The Hunger Games use digital tools
to become participatory, passionate and effective civic actors?
