How can social media encourage civic participation? Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

How can social media encourage civic participation? Case Study Solution

According to academic research, it has been found that consuming more news media results in higher probability of being politically engaged. As the attention of public is diverting towards social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, scholars are trying to evaluate the relationship between use of social media and public engagement. According to(Wihbey, 2015), it is suggested that Facebook messages and liked pages can significantly impact voting patterns of individuals. The study of Facebook has suggested that promotional messages by friends have impacted a total of 340,000votes.

From 1980s, society has been shifting from community culture to individual culture which is economically important. We have now become consumers rather than only citizens. Although there are good examples available, but according to (Galbraith, 1992)sometimes, government become arrogant and distrust the public. Such as when public is consulted, the views of citizens are devalued and expert opinion is preferred which results in feelings of displacement from civilian responsibility. As a result, only 43% of citizens in United Kingdom are interested to be involved in decision making. From the remaining people, 40% of them complain about lack of available timings. However, it is argued that the most important reason is about motivation and the internet plays an important part in reducing barriers of engagement and increasing their motivations.

Political dissatisfaction is not a fiction or story of civic war, but is a compromising position, where representatives are elected to make laws and set government priorities or present other alternatives. In 21^st century, political campaigning is not only the part of pre-election period, but is constant throughout the political cycle. Therefore, media plays an important part in this regard. Moreover, news reporting has moved away from historical reporting position and mediators between public and politicians can express their emotions.

A positive shift has been made from professionalization to neoliberalism, and resulted in double edged sword. With the increase in rise of activist organization, neoliberalism has also increased with service based Non-Governmental Organization, which is focusing on social attachment within civil society context which relies on strategic components within local and national governments. With the rise of social media, strong theoretical position within third sector organizations worked as democratic actors and informational intermediaries.

It has been feared by commentators that internet is moving towards fragmentation of public circle, as it enables a refined form of civic engagement, which is fostered by engagement of local communities. Rather than opinions gathered by diverse groups, internet governance suggests areas of civic interest, which is online platform, and emerge in new forms of leadership. The internet does not increase a person’s motivation to be more engaged, but it reduces the engagement barriers and thus, increases motivation of engagement. Using this theory of civil society could also work as game changer for renewing democratic renewal. According to (Sunstein, 2001), the internet is not regarded badly for democracy.

A three year study on online government engagement has been prepared by (Miller, 2008), in which the benefits of government and public online communication and need for sustained public engagement have been discussed. The barriers of effective management stand on both the governmental and public sides. From the government point of view, there is lacking in true principles of the engagement and culture is inherently against the risk, which is perceived at high risk to engage with a non-expert public. The internet also experiences single issues that are more popular to be discussed offline, and a link to democratic institutions is not necessary. Alternatively, the citizen viral these issues, which leads to distributed model of political individualism..................

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