It’s not the easiest report to make sense of: I would have liked fewer paragraphs full of percentages and more helpful and meaningful presentations of their findings. But it’s interesting, and I will try to unpack some of it by Monday.

The discussion is being held in Moseley Exchange at 6.30pm on Monday (19 April). It’s free to Moseley Exchange members and £3 on the door to non-members.

Anyone is welcome. If you intend to join us please take a moment to register on our Eventbrite page.

Update

The report’s author, Andy Williamson, has very kindly agreed to be online to answer questions.

• Possibly related posts

  1. Ordnance Survey OpenData: what is it? Come and discuss it at Moseley Exchange
  2. Spreading knowledge of research into digital engagement
  3. Socitim’s ‘Better Connected 2010′ report: what did it say? Join the discussion at Moseley Exchange

I for one am put off voting at all, let alone for the ‘least bad’ party. But what do you think? Let me know with this poll:

• Possibly related posts

  1. Young people don’t value the political power of social media, but they would vote
  2. Talk About Local unconference 2010: Election coverage discussion
  3. Using online tools, I compared, quizzed and made an informed decision about an election candidate: in 20 minutes

A recent YouGov poll for the Citizenship Foundation interviewed almost 4,000 14-25 year-olds about their attitudes to political participation, politicians and power in the United Kingdom.

• The majority of respondents said they would be likely to vote, with 59 per cent seeing voting as the most useful way of participating in local or national politics.
• 32 per cent said they were knowledgeable about “the way that local and national government works”; of those, 71 per cent said the internet was a source of their news.
• 85 per cent had never joined a campaigning group in their local community (fairly consistent across the age ranges), and 50 per cent thought doing so would make no difference to the issues the tackle (also fairly consistent).
• 51 per cent had never joined a campaigning group on a social networking site, but 42 per cent had; however 65 per cent thought doing so would make no difference.
• 54 per cent said they would be more likely to vote if they could do so online.
• Email was seen as the most effective tool for making a political difference online. This doubles at the top end of the age bracket. Twitter scores very low and only increases fractionally with older respondents; although interestingly there is a significant spike among 16 year-olds (almost treble the score of younger age groups).

Further information

This post was originally published on the Citizenship Foundation Webmaster blog. The research was commissioned to mark the Citizenship Foundation’s 20th year.

• Press releases
• Download the survey results summary (pdf)
• Download the full survey results (pdf)

• Possibly related posts

  1. Young people see the media as powerful but don’t trust it: particularly not the tabloids
  2. Do organisations really need social media policies?
  3. Social media: peripheral impact measurement