by Ben Kirshner (Editor) and Ellen Middaugh (Editor)

Social media and digital tools permeate the everyday lives of young people. In the early stages of commentary about the impact of the digital age on civic life, debates revolved around whether the Internet enhanced or discouraged civic and political action.

by Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, Danielle Allen

New media have come to play a prominent role in civic and political life. Social network sites, web sites and text increasingly serve as both a conduit for political information and a major public arena where citizens express and exchange their political ideas; raise funds; and mobilize others to vote, protest, and work on public issues.

by Joseph Kahne, David Crow, Nam-Jin Lee

Using data from an original two-wave panel survey of California high school students and a two-wave panel survey of high school students in Chicago, we find that different pedagogical approaches influence different forms of civic and political engagement.

by Joseph Kahne, Namjin Lee, Jessica Timpany Feezell

Most existing scholarship that measures the impact of the Internet on civic or political engagement focuses on political uses of new media.

by Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh

Social media are changing how youth involve themselves in politics. Educators also must change how they prepare students to be involved citizens.

by Cathy Cohen, Joseph Kahne, Ben Bowyer, Ellen Middaugh, Jon Rogowski

The MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics (YPP) developed and fielded one of the first nationally representative studies of new media and politics among young people.

by Joseph Kahne, Nam-Jin Lee, Jessica Timpany Feezell

Can media literacy education promote and improve youth engagement in civic and political life? Unfortunately, to date, there have been almost no quantitative assessments of the frequency or possible impacts of media literacy education.

by Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, Nam-Jin Lee, Jessica T. Feezell

Some see the internet as a means of exposure to divergent perspectives, while others believe that it is likely to foster echo chambers. We agree that it is important to attend to these possibilities, but we find that this discussion is often framed inappropriately.

by Ellen Middaugh

Throughout history, there have been many impressive examples of youth leadership and engagement in volunteerism, activism, and politics. However, the majority of US youth are less engaged, and thus under-represented, compared to older adults in many of the civic and political institutions that regulate and coordinate public life.

by Ellen Middaugh and Joseph Kahne

This study draws on panel survey data of 436 youth surveyed in high school (ages 16-17) and following the 2008 election (ages 19-22) to examine whether and under what conditions recruitment in general and internet recruitment specifically encourage participation in varied civic and political activities.

by Joseph Kahne, Jacqueline Ullman, Ellen Middaugh

The youngest generations participate the least in civic life, with a full 55 percent of those under thirty recently judged as civically and politically “disengaged’ in a report by the National Conference on Citizenship.

by Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, Chris Evans

The Civic Potential of Video Games, focuses solely on the civic dimensions of video game play among youth.

by Ellen Middaugh and Joseph Kahne

As people spend more time online and conduct more of their day-to-day business in this manner, scholars have begun to questions what, if any, implication these trends have for participation in local communities and for the functioning of our democracy.

by Ellen Middaugh and Joseph Kahne

This paper examines the common features and social contextual differences of youth civic development.

by Amanda Lenhart, Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, Alexandra Rankin Macgill, Chris Evans, Jessica Vitak

Video games provide a diverse set of experiences and related activities and are part of the lives of almost all teens in America.

by Joseph Kahne and Susan Sporte

This study of 4,057 students from 52 high schools in Chicago finds that a set of specific civic learning opportunities fosters notable improvements in students' commitments to civic participation.

by Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh

CERG’s 2005-2007 study found that access to civic learning opportunities was inequitable.

by Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh

This study of high school civic learning opportunities found that a student's race and academic track, and a school's average socioeconomic status (SES) determines the availability of the school-based civic learning opportunities that promote voting and broader forms of civic engagement.

by Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh

The purpose of this article is to share a model of high quality civic education and the research base that supports it.

by Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh

Is patriotism good for democracy? Or does a commitment to patriotism threaten democracy? Educators do not agree on this issue.