Unlocking the Potential of Social Media for Participation, Content Creation and e-Engagement. Students' Perspectives and Empowerment

In recent years, interest in the potential of social media and social networking sites for young people's participation in public spaces has gained momentum. These media have been seen as adequate to support the development of participatory culture. However, some studies have questioned their participatory power and demonstrated that online participatory culture is still at an early stage. This chapter reports on a study involving 163 Italian youths with the aim of presenting the development of an instrument to evaluate participatory attitudes of teens (ePAAA, Assessing Adolescents' Attitudes towards e-Participation) and advance in our knowledge of how young people are appropriating social media. In the first part, the theoretical background is illustrated focusing on the different forms of participation and content creation, the notion of civic engagement and the role of social media. In the second part, the characteristics of the tool are described and the results of its administration are discussed, while considering its implications for education and citizenship. Indeed, since there are no deterministic links between social media usage and active engagement, the main conclusion of the chapter is that education, especially media education, should play a major role in supporting adolescents' civic engagement and empowerment.