Neta Kligler-Vilenchik— Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem— and Ioana Literat— Associate Professor of Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design at Columbia University— discuss their book, Not Your Parents’ Politics: Understanding Young People’s Political Expression on Social Media. They create a dialogue around the ways young people engage with politics using social media, noting the differences between platforms and regions. Kligler-Vilenchik and Literat tie this into the 2016 and 2024 election cycles, along with international bureaucratic frictions.
Both scholars tell us about their growing research on youth cultures’ interactions with politics and how those have shifted over time. They cover how younger people are often involved in politics, whether it be via fandom or other forms of civic imagination. They end by suggesting that these intersections between the younger generations and politics can be optimistically inspiring.
Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:
Academic Texts
Not Your Parents’ Politics: Understanding Young People’s Political Expression on Social Media
[Oxford, Amazon]By Any Media Necessary The New Youth Activism [NYU Press, Amazon]
Fan activism and the Harry Potter Alliance [TWC]
The Image War Moves to TikTok Evidence from the May 2021 Round of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict [Taylor & Francis Online]
Dynamics of scale shift: Contentious places and hybrid activism on social media [Sage Journal]
People Mentioned
Joe Rogan
Kamala Harris
Donald Trump
Barrack Obama
Hillary Clinton
Xi Jinping
Lillian (Lilly) Boxman-Shabtai
Taylor Swift
TV, Films, and Other Media
Captain America [IMDB]
Harry Potter [IMDB]
Donald Trump Speech LipSync [YouTube link]
Extra Fun Tidbits + News
Civic Paths [Website Link]
Scratch Online Coding Community [MIT Site link]
Fandom Forward [Link]
Little Pinks [Article Link]
South Korea President Removed From Power [Article Link]
Romanian TikTok Election Scandal [BBC Link]
Teen Activism Against School Shooting After Parkland [PBS Link]
Slacktivisim [Article Link]Henry Jenkins on Emma Gonzale’s Jacket and youth activism [Brown Journal of Public Affairs]
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