Communicating Citizenship Online

How do youth organisations use new media? How do they address Internet savvy youth who are also apathetic citizens? How has this evolved with new demands for interactivity in social media? These are contemporary challenges facing any organization active online. This book aims to analyse one particular scenario of modern-day political communication: online communication directed from youth organisations to young citizens. Spanning seven years of research (2003–2010), it looks at web philosophy and methods of online communication (via websites, Facebook and Twitter), in three separate political contexts, and with a variety of analytical tools. This book provides theoretical and practical insights into how organisations are using new media to address today’s young citizen. In a broad sense, it is a study about contemporary citizenship: It examines how citizenship is changing and how this is reflected in organisational aims. It is also an inquiry into online political communication: It provides a comprehensive overview of web-based communication, starting in the heyday of official websites and moving into the realm of social media. It provides important insights into the relationship between context and content.