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Youths and online spaces : implications for citizenship education
Author
Chin, Yih Min
Supervisor
Ho, Li-Ching
Abstract
The internet offers many opportunities for the youth of today to seek information, interact, and create content. These online opportunities or online spaces hence present much potential for youth civic engagement and empowerment which citizenship educators should tap upon.
Many studies have been conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom on youth online civic engagement and the use of online spaces. However, relatively fewer studies have been conducted for the Singapore context. This study focusing on the perspectives of 14- to 15-year old youths of different academic abilities and academic tracks from three secondary schools in Singapore aimed to address this gap.
This study aimed to examine youth perceptions towards online spaces, including websites designed for civic engagement, in particular three local civic online spaces: (1) media-related STOMP, (2) state-initiated Youth.Sg and (3) youth-initiated The Kent Ridge Common.
The findings of this study revealed that social networking was the most popular online activity due to its ability to build extensive relationships and deepen interaction with friends. Next in popularity was the watching of online videos which suggested that it had become the new television for youths due to its accessibility and variety.
Although popular, these online activities should be seen as platforms to host youth interests instead of actual youth interests. It is also interesting to note that youth interests are diverse and it is not always possible to stereotype them as one generic group. In terms of Singapore youth perceptions towards online spaces designed for civic engagement, more than half were not interested in news, current affairs, politics and the government. This mirrored findings from similar studies in the United States and the United Kingdom. This disinterest was largely due to the youth perception that these issues were irrelevant and meant only for adults. Youth responses towards the three civic online spaces revealed common elements required if the online space is to be a success. Of the three, STOMP was the most popular due to its coverage of everyday life in Singapore with many articles contributed by the local readers. Youth.Sg was unappealing due to its limited and uninteresting topics and under-populated forums. The Kent Ridge Common was the least popular as the language and topics covered were perceived to be too difficult for comprehension. When comparing youths across academic abilities, it was observed that the higher ability Integrated Programme track reported the highest online usage levels, internet literacy, interest towards news and civic matters and language command. Youths from the Express and Normal Academic tracks tended to lie in between the Integrated Programme and Normal Technical tracks in all aspects except interest towards news and civic matters. In terms of gender differences, it was noted that boys and girls posted different reactions to the use of racy images in civic sites and that boys appeared more inclined towards political issues while the girls towards civil issues.
Based on my findings, I have provided a set of recommendations on the use of online spaces for citizenship education.
Many studies have been conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom on youth online civic engagement and the use of online spaces. However, relatively fewer studies have been conducted for the Singapore context. This study focusing on the perspectives of 14- to 15-year old youths of different academic abilities and academic tracks from three secondary schools in Singapore aimed to address this gap.
This study aimed to examine youth perceptions towards online spaces, including websites designed for civic engagement, in particular three local civic online spaces: (1) media-related STOMP, (2) state-initiated Youth.Sg and (3) youth-initiated The Kent Ridge Common.
The findings of this study revealed that social networking was the most popular online activity due to its ability to build extensive relationships and deepen interaction with friends. Next in popularity was the watching of online videos which suggested that it had become the new television for youths due to its accessibility and variety.
Although popular, these online activities should be seen as platforms to host youth interests instead of actual youth interests. It is also interesting to note that youth interests are diverse and it is not always possible to stereotype them as one generic group. In terms of Singapore youth perceptions towards online spaces designed for civic engagement, more than half were not interested in news, current affairs, politics and the government. This mirrored findings from similar studies in the United States and the United Kingdom. This disinterest was largely due to the youth perception that these issues were irrelevant and meant only for adults. Youth responses towards the three civic online spaces revealed common elements required if the online space is to be a success. Of the three, STOMP was the most popular due to its coverage of everyday life in Singapore with many articles contributed by the local readers. Youth.Sg was unappealing due to its limited and uninteresting topics and under-populated forums. The Kent Ridge Common was the least popular as the language and topics covered were perceived to be too difficult for comprehension. When comparing youths across academic abilities, it was observed that the higher ability Integrated Programme track reported the highest online usage levels, internet literacy, interest towards news and civic matters and language command. Youths from the Express and Normal Academic tracks tended to lie in between the Integrated Programme and Normal Technical tracks in all aspects except interest towards news and civic matters. In terms of gender differences, it was noted that boys and girls posted different reactions to the use of racy images in civic sites and that boys appeared more inclined towards political issues while the girls towards civil issues.
Based on my findings, I have provided a set of recommendations on the use of online spaces for citizenship education.
Date Issued
2011
Call Number
H62.5.S55 Chi
Date Submitted
2011