Interaction
Year : 2018, Volume : 36, Issue : 2
First page : ( 28) Last page : ( 37)
Print ISSN : 0970-5554. Online ISSN : 2456-8961.

New media and Indian youth: Bridging the gap between emotional engagement and civic participation

Pathak Manisha

MICA, Shela, Ahmedabad-380 058

Online published on 12 April, 2019.

Abstract

The core question here is to identify what kinds of adult-youth partnership may result in rewarding civic practices. Adults in supportive roles for youth civic engagement may be parents, teachers, policy makers, government officers, and elected leaders among many others. Some of the supportive functions they can play are: facilitating critical media literacy and fluency for participation; providing confidence and capacity building support, co-designing and supporting democratic online and offline spaces for participation; and exposing youth to multiple perspectives and networks through new media. Equally important is to create enabling environments. On one side we have been urging the Indian youth to lead the country into the next big leap of development but as policy makers will we give them the Net neutrality and access to digital media not controlled by big corporations? As their guardians and as government leaders will we give them the freedom of expression without surveillance and punishment for ‘sticking their necks out‘? The potential of new media for civic participation can only be fulfilled by creating a civic culture in India that respects dialogue, dissenting views and willingness to incorporate young people's own definitions and approaches of civic engagement.

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Keywords

Emotion, cognitive, civic participation.

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