Social Media and Connective Journalism: The Formation of Counterpublics and Youth Civic Participation

• In Event: Civic Tech and the Politics of Technology

Abstract

Based on a case in which high school students from a predominantly low-income, immigrant and minoritized community used social media to share personal stories and news about environmental injustice affecting their community, ultimately helping to shape public policy, this paper discusses how the connectivity facilitated by social media creates opportunities for youth voice and collective identification that can inspire connective political action. It illustrates how youthful online practices of sharing personal stories, news coverage, links, photos, memes, videos and other artifacts of political engagement that constitute "connective journalism" can help young people create and share narratives about their personal experiences and concerns which, in turn, allow them to see themselves as members of larger publics and counterpublics of people facing similar experiences and grievances. These practices have implications for the ways we think about journalism, media and politics.

Authors

• Regina M. Marchi, Rutgers U

• Lynn Schofield Clark, U of Denver