Introduction

With two days to go before I collect my certificate, I thought i'd start posting the contents of my dissertation.

Here's the introduction. It seems the footnotes which include the referencing don't appear. This is a bit of a pain and something I will try and recitfy so that everyone gets their fair recognition.

This work, of course, belongs to me and to the University of Westminster. Read it, comment on it, refer to it if you think it's useful but don't steal it!

INTRODUCTION

Political engagement in the United Kingdom, especially among young people, has caused growing concern over the past decade. In the 2005 general election turnout among 18 to 24 years olds stood at just 37 per cent.

The reasons put forward for low turnout are many and complex. One issue that has gained much attention during the period of the Blair Labour Government is that of political communications.

A debate has raged over the quality of political debate in the United Kingdom and whether this because of politicians’ attempts to manipulate news or the declining quality of journalism due to various pressures. This perceived decline in the quality of political debate is seen by many in politics and in the media as a primary factor in lower political engagement.

This dissertation aims to analyse whether, and if so to what extent, issues of political communications have had an impact on voter turnout, particularly among young people. It also aims to test the perceptions of different specific groups within society on the potential of new media technologies, particularly Internet based services, to address this problem.



Chapter 1 of this dissertation examines the debate on low levels of political engagement including the issue of whether, or to what extent, how politicians communicate and how the media reports on politics is affecting political engagement.

It concludes that although issues of communication and media are not the most important factor in political disengagement among young people in the United Kingdom, the use of new media in political communications could still have the potential to have a positive impact on democracy.

This will create the context from which to move forward to the main topic to be tackled by this paper. This will be an examination of the perceptions of different groups on what exactly the potential of new media is. How, if at all, can the proliferation of mobile telephony and the Internet be used to engage more people, particularly young people from ethnic minorities, in the political process?

The primary research for this dissertation was conducted in the London borough of Hackney. The borough was chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, the two constituencies that represent the area both had a turnout of less than 50 per cent in the 2005 general election. Secondly, the population of the borough has a relatively youthful profile.

Chapter 2 will examine issues affecting democracy and political engagement in Hackney. This will establish whether the issues discussed in the first chapter are also relevant in the local context. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the methodology used in the primary research and lists the participants. Three separate groups were surveyed in order to test the perceptions on how new media might be used, and why it might help to address problems of political engagement. These were a group of local councillors, a group of community leaders including representatives from Team Hackney, and a group of young people of Afro Caribbean origin.

All agreed that new media technologies have the potential to strengthen democracy. But significant differences emerged on the particular issues that these technologies could be used to address. These differences were based on the different perceptions of what the causes of disengagement among young people are. The results of the research and their implications are discussed in Chapters 4 and 5.

The final chapter provides a general conclusion together with some recommendations on how new media technologies could be used in political communications to engage more young people and strengthen the democratic process in the United Kingdom.