Exploring South African youths' on/offline political participation
type: CreativeWork
description: This study is located between the contradiction that youth is politically disinterested and that youth is very much politically engaged. Some scholars have argued that youth political disinterest is a threat to the life of the traditional public sphere and democracy. Against the notion of the youth's disinterest and disaffection from politics, this study points out the deficit in exploratory studies that examine and explore the relationship between young people and their political participation both in the on/offline context. In light of the contradiction as well, this current study asked the following question: how does a group of South African youth use social media to participate in the virtual public sphere? Also, what are the views of a group of South African youth about political participation (via their use of traditional and new/social media)?
abstract: This study is located between the contradiction that youth is politically disinterested and that youth is very much politically engaged. Some scholars have argued that youth political disinterest is a threat to the life of the traditional public sphere and democracy. Against the notion of the youth's disinterest and disaffection from politics, this study points out the deficit in exploratory studies that examine and explore the relationship between young people and their political participation both in the on/offline context. In light of the contradiction as well, this current study asked the following question: how does a group of South African youth use social media to participate in the virtual public sphere? Also, what are the views of a group of South African youth about political participation (via their use of traditional and new/social media)?
author: Mbenga, Chilombo
language: eng
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:26Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Centre for Film and Media Studies

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12353