Political Participation of Teenagers in the Information Era

Abstract

This study intends to examine the environments and the characteristics of political participation of teenage political participation. The 2008 Candlelight Protests of Korea is used as the case of this study. Traditionally, teenagers in Korea have been known to disengage from political affairs because they are usually worn by intense academic challenge and competition. In that sense, participation of teenagers at such a large scale shown in the 2008 Candlelight Protests of Korea can only be explained as a huge shift in political preference of teenagers and conventional social norms. In that sense, the case of 2008 Candlelight Protests of Korea has shown great implications for the political potential of new media, which is capable of revolutionizing the political socialization patterns of youth. Survey results demonstrated that the Internet had become an important tool from which the teenagers collected political information and channels which they used to organize and mobilize. Numbers also showed that the degree of the youth’s sociopolitical interests were higher than the adult’s. Another notable fact found was that female students showed more aggressive involvement than male students and this could be explained by the difference in the Internet usage pattern between male and female students. In using media, adolescent girls displayed more relationship and objective-oriented behaviors than the boys.