Communication Infrastructure and Civic Engagement in the ICT Era: A Synthetic Approach

Abstract

Communication infrastructure as a collective storytelling system contributing to civic engagement needs to reflect the prominence of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This chapter, therefore, proposes that civic engagement is implemented through the synthesis of ICT and daily communication practices at different levels. Drawing on communication infrastructure theory and communicative ecology, this chapter suggests that ICT, traditional media and face-to-face communication are key factors of civic engagement. These storytelling agents operate at different levels from micro- to meso- and macro-levels. Communication infrastructure that reflects ICT becomes an ecological foundation that comprehensively explicates the process of civic engagement.