Web 2.0 and the Political Mobilization of College Students
By (author) Kenneth W. Moffett, Laurie L. Rice
Publication date:
14 September 2016Length of book:
190 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498538572
Web 2.0 and the Political Mobilization of College Students investigates how college students’ online activities, when politically oriented, can affect their political participatory patterns offline. Kenneth W. Moffett and Laurie L. Rice find that online forms of political participation—like friending or following candidates and groups as well as blogging or tweeting about politics—draw in a broader swathe of young adults than might ordinarily participate. Political scientists have traditionally determined that participatory patterns among the general public hold less sway in shaping civic activity among college students. This book, however, recognizes that young adults’ political participation requires looking at their online activities and the ways in which these help mobilize young adults to participate via other forms. Moffett and Rice discover that engaging in one online participatory form usually begets other forms of civic activity, either online or offline.
Kenneth W. Moffett and Laurie L. Rice show that online political participation among college students is far more than idle slacktivism. Using one form of social media leads to others, and online and offline civic activities are mutually reinforcing. Social media expand the pool of attentive citizens and the forms through which they can join the political fray. Political parties ignore those media at their peril.