BGHS

Viktoria Spaiser

Youth, Internet and Politics: Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Youth's Political Internet Usage

The PhD-Project "Youth, Internet and Politics: Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Youth's Political Internet Usage" deals empirically with political Internet usage among immigrant and non-immigrant youth in Germany. The research project will link to several studies, amongst others to Kathrin Kissau's studies on political Internet usage among immigrants and Lilia Hirsch's study on political and social Internet usage among German youth.
By means of statistical analysis of survey data various forms of political Internet usage will be evaluated in order to work out clusters (types) of political Internet usage. Furthermore, causal models will be used to understand background factors of political internet usage. The statistically formed clusters and causal models results will be elaborated subsequently using qualitative interview data. The differences and commonalities of political Internet usage between immigrant and non-immigrant youth will be of particular interest during this research, as all hitherto existing studies lack such a comparative approach. However, a comparative study is necessary to verify several hypotheses, e.g. Kissau's hypothesis that especially marginalized groups like immigrants could benefit politically from the Internet. The basic consideration is that if the Internet has any potential to enhance possibilities for political action and communication, as claimed by some scholars, then it should be possible to prove this democratizing potential for politically weak groups, for instance for juveniles with an immigrant background.
Finally, I want also to investigate the importance of the Internet for political action and communication of immigrant and non-immigrant youth.

Publications and Presentations (PDF)

Curriculum Vitae