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Abstract
With youth, in particular, there are perceptions of declining political interest; at the same time the world where normative democratic ideals were formed is rapidly changing. Globalization results in unclear boundaries between nation states. Consequentially corporations gain power, and advances in online technology make global communication all the more possible. Within such a context, the notion of political consumerism emerges and individual consumption is tied to the concept of citizenship. Young people's interest in non-traditional citizenship along with their strong online presence offers an opportunity to examine how organizations use the internet to address the young citizen-consumer. This paper presents results from a number of in-depth interviews with Web producers of UK-based youth organizations, and provides a look at how these organizations view political consumption in terms of their theoretical outlook and its application to their online presence. It concludes that issue-based campaigns see political consumerism as a new way forward for citizenship while others (those more tied to government) use it as a stepping stone to getting youth involved in more traditional arenas.
Notes
1. The complete selection of 20 websites/interviews stems from the author's dissertation research, which examines young people and relevant websites from a broader perspective. The original group of potential interviewees was contacted via email. A positive response meant the interviews were scheduled immediately; no response resulted in a reminder email being sent one week later. At this point, interviews were either scheduled or declined. A small minority again ignored the request and was not contacted further.
2. http://www.peta2.com/UK/index.asp. Peta2 is mainly a US-based organization, but has made UK-and Germany-specific sections available on its website. The interviewee was from the USA, as the UK representative told me he could not speak to me for legal reasons.
9. Skype is a peer-to-peer internet telephony network, and Skypeout is an embedded service that allows land-line calls from the internet. See http://www.skype.com for more information. The interview with the Young Greens representative was conducted via Instant Messenger.
10. Topic categories included inquiries regarding the interviewee's position and responsibilities, views on youth, objectives of the website, views of democracy and citizenship, and future directions of the website. Each of these topics contained various components and questions. A complete version of the interview guide is available by contacting the author.
11. Since 2002, for students aged 11–16, the citizenship curriculum is compulsory in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It is not required in Scotland, but most Scottish schools participate voluntarily.