The Challenge of Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Age

While the example of the 2008 presidential election foreshadows the role of the Internet in our democracy, addressing the factors that create and maintain stratification on the web is the main focus of this essay. Turner-Lee argues that unequal access to the Internet affects civic engagement when groups are underrepresented, or on the periphery of online activity. Moreover, political deliberation among a diverse group of citizens is limited when individuals cluster themselves on the web within communities that essentially mirror their offline networks and experiences. In this essay, Turner-Lee offers policymakers and other civic leaders interested in creating a just and inclusive democracy a series of strategies for transforming the Internet into a place for deliberative exchange that impacts future public policies, promotes digital inclusion, and restructures online platforms to more effectively broker relationships between diverse people and causes.

[Nicol Turner-Lee is Vice President and the first Director of the Media and Technology Institute for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies]