Puget sound off: Fostering youth civic engagement through citizen journalism

Shelly Farnham*, David Keyes, Vicky Yuki, Chris Tugwell

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Social media technologies provide unique channels to empower youth to become more civically engaged. Puget Sound Off is an online blogging and networking site focused on helping youth connect, collaborate, and take action around local community issues. We performed an evaluation study seeking lessons learned from a real world deployment. We found that a core group of youth became highly engaged with Puget Sound Off, and that both usage and identification with the community was positively correlated with civic engagement. Youth reported an appreciation for the opportunity for meaningful discussion around issues that mattered to them. We found however that growth of Puget Sound Off was slow, in part due to the constraints of deploying to youth in a real world context with concerns about inappropriate use. We end with recommendations for fostering growth and civic engagement in related social media technologies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCSCW'12 - Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Pages285-294
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
EventACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW'12 - Seattle, WA, United States
Duration: Feb 11 2012Feb 15 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

Conference

ConferenceACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW'12
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySeattle, WA
Period02/11/1202/15/12

Keywords

  • blogging
  • blogs
  • citizen journalism
  • civic efficacy
  • civic engagement
  • community action
  • internet
  • pso
  • puget sound off
  • social participation
  • youth

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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