The Evolution of Politics and Civic Cultures

The emergence of digital communities in contemporary society has not only increased the opportunities for trivial interaction with users across the globe, but has also evolved many of the current political climates. Whether it's through the increased communication of political messages from organisations, or the ability for a wider-reaching discourse to be produced, politics have phased between both the digital and real-world that has shifted, in specific democracy, and how citizens engage in democratic actions.

A Digital, Civil Society

This ability to “engage competently and positively with digital technologies” that has become second-nature to many is known as “digital citizenship”, with heavy ties to political participation that occurs through social media in particular (Frau-Meigs, O’Neill, Soriani & Tomé 2017, p. 11). This culmination of digital citizens that have come together during over the past decade, whether it be in the U.S, Australia or other similar democratic nations, have all formed to create a “civil society” where these participatory traditions and ethics are expected to be carried out in the online landscape. Therefore, this opportunity for a civil society within digital communities allows for problem solving to be performed by the stakeholders who currently, or may one day, have a strong interest in promoting and communicating the principles of political parties in order to spread any values they believe in, for better or worse (Frau-Meigs et al. 2017, p. 77). Whether it's through a Facebook post, Twitter hashtag or even a Tik Tok, the power of politics is strong through digital citizenship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDDSeFZuxek

Fake News

With the power of political messages in anyone’s hands within this digital age, comes the dangers of “fake news”. Whilst the phenomenon of fake news has existed for decades, especially throughout the broadcast era, this term has become recently popularised within the platforms of social media (Burkhardt 2017, p. 1). The most common use of the phrase can be traced back to the 2016 U.S election, with Trump twisting this idea to persuade the public and digital citizens of the misinformation that was spread about him, in an attempt to blame any negative scandals of himself as being fake news. As many probably already know, a lot of news regarding Trump was true, but there undeniably has been “fertile ground” on these social media platforms for spreading misinformation about any political figure or organisation in general (Burkhardt 2017, p. 1) The only logical way of avoiding any persuasion of fake news is to simply cross-reference and cite multiple sources and webpages before coming to any conclusion based off of one person’s bias or manipulation on the Internet.

Individuals have the responsibility to protect themselves from fake news.

This era of politics has become more interactive and deadly than ever before. Our transition into digital citizens has affected every democratic culture without choice from us. With these new platforms and methods of instantaneous communication between members of civil societies breeds new opportunities for fake news and other contagious issues of politics. No matter what age we’re living in, one thing is for certain, with a social push in one direction, there will always be a resisting force that aims to warp opinions against its opposition.

References

Burkhardt, J. (2017). Combating Fake News in the Digital Age (Vol 53), Library Technology Reports, American Library Association.

Frau-Meigs, D ., O’Neill, B., Soriani A., Tomé V. (2017). Volume 1 Overview and new perspectives, Digital Citizenship Education, Council of Europe.