Book Talk – Not Your Parents’ Politics: Understanding Young People’s Political Expression on Social Media

With Associate professor Neta Kligler-Vilenchik (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Discussants: Qinfeng Zhu and Denise Mensonides (Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, RUG)

Whether we like it or not, social media platforms have become a key space for youth political expression. Yet young people’s engagement with politics on social media looks and feels different from adult conceptions of political expression: it is creative, making inventive use of platform affordances; it is personal, shaped by young people’s experiences and identities; and it is meaningful to young people, as a space to exert their political voice. Grounded in empirical research on three case studies of youth political expression (the U.S. 2016 election, Black Lives Matter, and climate change) on musical.ly, Instagram and YouTube, the book offers insights into the varied ways young people engage with political issues on the social media platforms most popular with youth audiences. On a theoretical level, the book offers a conceptual framework for analyzing how different platforms shape political expression through the interaction between their affordances, norms, and contents. This empirical and theoretically-based investigation sets the stage for a normative discussion, asking how the forms of expressive citizenship identified throughout the book might bolster—or hinder—democratic engagement. Ultimately, the book considers what it means to take youth political expression on social media seriously, and what the stakes are for political socialization and democratic participation.