Demokratisering av deltakelse gjennom sosiale medier. Sosial ulikhet i nordmenns digitale samfunnsengasjement

Abstract

Based on representative survey-data, this chapter is concerned with analyzing the potential democratic effects of social media on civic engagement and collective action. We investigate to what degree and how social differences with regard to age, gender, educational background and geographical centrality are expressed in digital forms of civic action: information consumption and triggering of political interest, membership in political Facebook-groups, digital expression of opinions, and digital voluntary work. Previous research and theories are inconclusive with regard to increasing or decreasing social divides in digital participation, depending on the particular personal characteristic and type of digital civic action. Our analyses show that younger persons are more active than older persons in many of the participatory forms. Like many previous studies, we find a certain reproduction of classical gender differences in which men are more active than women. Education is also found to reproduce the classical differences in which more education is connected to higher levels of participation. We also find that centrality of residence differentiates activity levels in certain forms of digital civic action. On the basis of our analyses we claim that the democratic effects of digitalization on civic participation, in the form of reducing classical divides in which groups are active and which groups are passive, are limited. While digital technologies have created many new possibilities for civic action, participation and engagement is still structured by resources, personal traits and social position.