Online Civic Engagement
Over a year has passed since I started blogging. What keeps this blog going when many academics fear blogs as unconventional, non-peer-reviewed forms of publication?
Since blogs are open to the world, anyone can scrutinize their content and comment on it, including experts – something not entirely different from peer review. Additionally, blogging may be seen as a form of civic engagement. It is useful not only in teaching and building community with one’s immediate environment but also in outreach to a broader community. And don’t forget, it’s much faster than other forms of publishing.
One blogger and teacher, Michael Kuhne, sees wikis such as Wikipedia as a form of civic engagement: “When it works, Wikipedia is this great social experiment where people with a vested interest in an article (actually, their interest is not the article itself, but what the article (re)presents) can exchange ideas, debate, deliberate, and create. How many civic institutions exist today that can promise the same?” (“What Does Wikipedia Have to Do With Civic Engagement?”). Traditionally, civic engagement has taken the form of non-profit contributions to society, usually by powerful groups of people providing services to their communities through channels such as charities, scouts, social welfare groups and religious organizations.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2009 that, in the U.S., the internet was still mirroring traditional socioeconomic power relations. The more advantaged are more likely to be civically engaged (whether online or not) just as the situation has been historically. Yet things are changing: “There are hints that forms of civic engagement anchored in blogs and social networking sites could alter long-standing patterns that are based on socioeconomic status” (Smith et. al, “The Internet and Civic Engagement”).
In future postings I shall continue to reflect on the idea of civic engagement online – a thought-provoking subject.
Posted by May Mikati on 02 July 2012, 5:23 PM
Over a year has passed since I started blogging. What keeps this blog going when many academics fear blogs as unconventional, non-peer-reviewed forms of publication?
Since blogs are open to the world, anyone can scrutinize their content and comment on it, including experts – something not entirely different from peer review. Additionally, blogging may be seen as a form of civic engagement. It is useful not only in teaching and building community with one’s immediate environment but also in outreach to a broader community. And don’t forget, it’s much faster than other forms of publishing.
One blogger and teacher, Michael Kuhne, sees wikis such as Wikipedia as a form of civic engagement: “When it works, Wikipedia is this great social experiment where people with a vested interest in an article (actually, their interest is not the article itself, but what the article (re)presents) can exchange ideas, debate, deliberate, and create. How many civic institutions exist today that can promise the same?” (“What Does Wikipedia Have to Do With Civic Engagement?”). Traditionally, civic engagement has taken the form of non-profit contributions to society, usually by powerful groups of people providing services to their communities through channels such as charities, scouts, social welfare groups and religious organizations.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2009 that, in the U.S., the internet was still mirroring traditional socioeconomic power relations. The more advantaged are more likely to be civically engaged (whether online or not) just as the situation has been historically. Yet things are changing: “There are hints that forms of civic engagement anchored in blogs and social networking sites could alter long-standing patterns that are based on socioeconomic status” (Smith et. al, “The Internet and Civic Engagement”).
In future postings I shall continue to reflect on the idea of civic engagement online – a thought-provoking subject.
Posted by May Mikati on 02 July 2012, 5:23 PM
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