2005-06-02: Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Annual Conference

Dates: June 2-4, 2005
Location: University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Organizing Body: Canadian Communication Association (CCA)
Conference URL: http://www.acc-cca.ca/eng/conference.html

This year marked the CCA’s 25th anniversary. The conference was part of the 2005 Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada 2005 Congress with the theme Paradoxes of Citizenship: Environments, Exclusions, Equity.

Digital Girl Brandi Bell presented a paper entitled “Children, youth, and civic participation: Citizenship mediated through technology.”

Abstract:

As media and internet technologies continue to play significant roles in the everyday lives of children and youth, many scholars have researched and written about children’s uses of these technologies (for example, Buckingham, 2002, and Livingstone, 2002). In an article focused on citizenship and adolescent health, McLeod (2000) argues that “recent research has shifted emphasis from an earlier view of adolescents as passive recipients of teaching from family, schools, and media to conceptions of youth as participants actively engaged in the world around them” (p. 45). He concludes that mass media and communication research should be combined with developmental and political socialization research regarding adolescents in order to better understand youth participation in civic life. Engaging directly with the Congress theme, Paradoxes of Citizenship: Environments, Exclusions, Equity, this paper will provide an overview of the literature to date on civic participation of children and youth, focusing predominantly on the role(s) of media technologies and the internet. It will also discuss gaps in existing research and address significant issues such as gender, race, class, geographical location, social capital, and consumption vs. citizenship, as well as definitions of citizenship and civic participation. The literature review will help to situate examples of how selected community networks, including those involved in the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN), are working to encourage civic participation among children and youth through use of technology.

References

• Buckingham, D. (2002). The electronic generation? Children and new media. In L. Lievrouw & S. Livingstone (Eds.), The Handbook of New Media. London: Sage.
• Livingstone, S. (2002). Young People and New Media: Children and the Changing Media
  Environment. London: Sage.
• McLeod, J.M. (2000). Media and civic socialization of youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 27S, 45-51.