Joe Kahne: Is Digital Media Good for Democracy?
9.7.07 | Is Digital Media Good for Democracy? Will digital media transform the nature of civic and political engagement? Will it lead to a stronger democracy? We’ve been conducting a longitudinal survey of more than 2,000 high school students to try and find out.
Digital media might help create more engaged citizens. It expands access to information, enables citizens to be producers as well as consumers of political perspectives, and opens up vast possibilities for connection and dialog. These are the dynamics that drive a healthy democracy.
But, digital media could make us worse citizens. For example, some have worried that participation will lead to “cyberbalkinization”—individuals might interact only with those who share their views. Or digital media might become a distraction, time spent listening to music, IMing one’s friends, or playing MMORPGS, might leave little time for civic or political endeavors.
Our study is just beginning, but here are two findings that have gotten us thinking:
- Cyberbalkinization doesn’t seem likely. Only 5% of the high school students we surveyed said that they connect on the internet only with those who share their views on issues.
- Twenty-six percent reported frequently connecting via the internet both to those who share their views AND to those who hold different beliefs. John Dewey thought that this kind of dual exposure was central to experiencing life in a democratic community. We’ve found that the students who have had these dual opportunities are much more civically and politically committed, knowledgeable, and active than the rest of the students we surveyed.
So, a key question for us is: What kinds of participation with digital media make such connections more likely?
We’d be very interested in what others think?
And if anyone is interested in our work, please visit http://www.civicsurvey.org
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Comments
Dave H. Crusoe (Harvard Univ. '05 & 07)
9/7/07
4:02pm
Hey there Joe,
Tremendous of you to solicit questions and ideas. I do wonder about the “Cyberbalkanization” bit, although it’s clear it has multiple dimensions.
For instance, although many kids indicate they share views with those who disagree, I do wonder about their accuracy in self-rating such a psychologically-linked phenomena. For instance, if you had asked me a week ago if I shared opinions with those who disagreed with my own view, I would have answered “yep, of course”.
And then I moved from Boston to Texas. Ow?
Why can’t we do the same thing with online citizens - in a sense, force a relocation? Or, at the very least, we might propose that in order to measure true Balkanization, we might measure what percentage of people undertake a similar relocation.
(One instance of this might be game players who are part of an online gaming “clan”; a gaming group with typically both a wide geographic spread AND a wide range of ages and professional / student backgrounds).
Cheers!
—Dave
Joe Kahne (Mills College)
9/8/07
6:54pm
I very much agree that these are rough measures of balkinization and the kind of network analysis you propose would be great. It also seems important to know more about the content of their connections. If folks’ interactions center on the game, for example, it would be great to know about the ways in which the dimensions on which they are diverse are part of these interactions. Of course, simply feeling connected to a broad range of individuals may support a sense of concern and connection to the broader society. Perhaps this is why such experiences are related to civic outcomes in our study. We hope to get a better sense of once we analyze the longitudinal data.
Best,
Joe
Rafi Santo (Global Kids)
9/10/07
12:58pm
Joe and Dave -
Speaking on the content of their connections and on the diversity encountered when interacting with digital media, I think it’s interesting to note the phenomenon of the “Off-topic” section in many MMORPG forums. In the one I’ve included the link for below, from the game Operation: Flashpoint, players discuss major world issues from Iraq to Global Warming and from European Politics to The Pentagon. See here:
http://tinyurl.com/3cwnv9
I think it’s definitely possible that within various game cultures (as opposed to in specific game content) we can find great examples of of civic engagement and exchange of differing views.
-Rafi
Ann Thomas (Student Educational Exchange Inc.)
10/10/07
2:06am
Joe,
Your work is fascinating and becoming more relevant every day. “What kinds of participation with digital media make such connections more likely?”
This is a question that my business partner and I asked ourselves last year, along with, “What can we do?” As a result, we are launching our non-profit web-based service for Educators right now. We’re just getting off the ground and only received our public charity status last week so have been funding everything ourselves.
Please visit the site (it’s still rough!) and I’d welcome any feedback.
Best Regards,
Ann
Joseph Kahne
10/11/07
6:04pm
Hi Ann,
I just checked it out - Looks like a great support for teachers and students. Good luck with this - and thanks for writing.
Best,
Joe