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Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018
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Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018

A special issue of Information (ISSN 2078-2489). This special issue belongs to the section "Information Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2019) | Viewed by 32005

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Muneo Kaigo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
Interests: library and information science; humanistic social informatics; social psychology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sae Okura

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Humanities,Law and Economics, Mie University, 514-8507 Tsu, Japan
Interests: political participation; gender; political science; civil society

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The dissemination of information and deliberation among citizens are essential for democracy, therefore social and political participation through new media and information technology has become a mainstream activity among those with media access in many of the developed states. The digital platforms for participation that nurture the growth of digital citizenship may also be an important factor that is shaping our ideas about government as we are observing various outcomes of digital activities. This issue hopes to not only investigate the state of digital citizenship, but also examine the dynamics of the digital platforms that are contributing to participation in various areas and why this is setting new trends for various types of citizen engagement.

Prof. Muneo Kaigo
Dr. Sae Okura
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Information is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Digital Citizenry
  • Engagement
  • Media Access
  • E-democracy
  • Inclusion

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 246 KiB  
Article
Electoral and Public Opinion Forecasts with Social Media Data: A Meta-Analysis
by Marko M. Skoric, Jing Liu and Kokil Jaidka
Information 2020, 11(4), 187; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11040187 - 31 Mar 2020
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 6027
Abstract
In recent years, many studies have used social media data to make estimates of electoral outcomes and public opinion. This paper reports the findings from a meta-analysis examining the predictive power of social media data by focusing on various sources of data and [...] Read more.
In recent years, many studies have used social media data to make estimates of electoral outcomes and public opinion. This paper reports the findings from a meta-analysis examining the predictive power of social media data by focusing on various sources of data and different methods of prediction; i.e., (1) sentiment analysis, and (2) analysis of structural features. Our results, based on the data from 74 published studies, show significant variance in the accuracy of predictions, which were on average behind the established benchmarks in traditional survey research. In terms of the approaches used, the study shows that machine learning-based estimates are generally superior to those derived from pre-existing lexica, and that a combination of structural features and sentiment analyses provides the most accurate predictions. Furthermore, our study shows some differences in the predictive power of social media data across different levels of political democracy and different electoral systems. We also note that since the accuracy of election and public opinion forecasts varies depending on which statistical estimates are used, the scientific community should aim to adopt a more standardized approach to analyzing and reporting social media data-derived predictions in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018)
15 pages, 2607 KiB  
Article
Game Accessibility and Advocacy for Participation of the Japanese Disability Community
by Muneo Kaigo and Sae Okura
Information 2020, 11(3), 162; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11030162 - 18 Mar 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4469
Abstract
In this paper we examine the recent situation of advocacy through game accessibility of video games for people with physical disabilities and its challenges in Japan. We conducted an email survey among the dominant gaming companies in Japan. We discovered that most gaming [...] Read more.
In this paper we examine the recent situation of advocacy through game accessibility of video games for people with physical disabilities and its challenges in Japan. We conducted an email survey among the dominant gaming companies in Japan. We discovered that most gaming companies developing games for those with disabilities have actually attempted to provide some consideration to people with disabilities through setting additional special functions such as “easy mode” and “support for visual disabilities”. One out of five companies could be categorized as having successfully developed games based on the concept of specialized assistive technology, and the remaining companies could be categorized as having developed games for disabilities based on the concept of barrier-reducing goods. We also found out that the major Japanese gaming corporations had a tendency not to be active in communicating with the disability communities. Our results might indicate that stronger interaction with the gaming companies is one direct way to enhance further development of games for people with disabilities. In addition to that, considering that games are a significant form of social participation for people with disabilities, more social understanding is required in the Japanese domestic context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018)
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15 pages, 628 KiB  
Article
Meta-Cognition of Efficacy and Social Media Usage among Japanese Civil Society Organizations
by Tomoya Sagara, Muneo Kaigo and Yutaka Tsujinaka
Information 2020, 11(2), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11020118 - 21 Feb 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3272
Abstract
This paper examines how social media are affecting Japanese civil society organizations, in relation to efficacy and political participation. Using data from the 2017 Japan Interest Group Study survey, we analyzed how the flow of information leads to the political participation of civil [...] Read more.
This paper examines how social media are affecting Japanese civil society organizations, in relation to efficacy and political participation. Using data from the 2017 Japan Interest Group Study survey, we analyzed how the flow of information leads to the political participation of civil society organizations. The total number of respondents (organizations) were 1285 (942 organizations in Tokyo and 343 from Ibaraki). In the analysis of our survey we focused on the data portion related to information behavior and efficacy and investigated the meta-cognition of efficacy in lobbying among civil society organizations in Tokyo and Ibaraki. We found that organizations that use social media were relatively few. However, among the few organizations that use social media, we found that these organizations have a much higher meta-cognition of political efficacy in comparison to those that do not use social media. For instance, social media usage had a higher tendency of having cognition of being able to exert influence upon others. We also found that organizations that interact with citizens have a higher tendency to use social media. The correspondence analysis results point towards a hypothesis of how efficacy and participation are mutually higher among the organizations that use social media in Japan. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018)
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20 pages, 886 KiB  
Article
“Why Drones for Ordinary People?” Digital Representations, Topic Clusters, and Techno-Nationalization of Drones on Zhihu
by Andrea Hamm and Zihao Lin
Information 2019, 10(8), 256; https://doi.org/10.3390/info10080256 - 09 Aug 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6731
Abstract
Unmanned and unwomaned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, are breaking and creating new boundaries of image-based communication. Using social network analysis and critical discourse analysis, we examine the 60 most popular question threads about drones on Zhihu, China’s largest social question answering platform. [...] Read more.
Unmanned and unwomaned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, are breaking and creating new boundaries of image-based communication. Using social network analysis and critical discourse analysis, we examine the 60 most popular question threads about drones on Zhihu, China’s largest social question answering platform. We trace how controversial issues around these supposedly novel tech products are mediated, domesticated, visualized, or marginalized via digital representational technology. Supported by Zhihu’s topic categorization algorithm, drone-related discussions form topic clusters. These topic clusters gain currency in the government-regulated cyberspace, where their meanings remain open to widely divergent interpretations and mediation by various agents. We find that the largest drone company DJI occupies a central and strongly interconnected position in the discussions. Drones are, moreover, represented as objects of consumption, technological advancement, national future, and uncertainty. At the same time, the sense-making process of drone-related discussions evokes emerging sets of narrative user identities with potential political effects. Users engage in digital representational technologies publicly and collectively to raise questions and represent their views on new technologies. Therefore, we argue that platforms like Zhihu are essential when studying views of the Chinese citizenry towards technological developments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018)
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14 pages, 40734 KiB  
Article
Collaborative Mapping and Digital Participation: A Tool for Local Empowerment in Developing Countries
by Jiri Panek and Rostislav Netek
Information 2019, 10(8), 255; https://doi.org/10.3390/info10080255 - 08 Aug 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6896
Abstract
There has been an enormous technological boom that impacted all areas of geoscience in the past few decades. Part of the change was also the process of democratization of cartography as well as geographic information systems (GIS), together with new approaches that have [...] Read more.
There has been an enormous technological boom that impacted all areas of geoscience in the past few decades. Part of the change was also the process of democratization of cartography as well as geographic information systems (GIS), together with new approaches that have emerged, bringing social dimension into cartography and GIS. These new approaches were variously labelled as critical cartography, collaborative mapping, digital citizenship, Bottom-up GIS and Participatory GIS. The paper describes the role of collaborative mapping and digital participation in the process of community building and community assets mapping. Secondly, we will use the examples of Kenya and Peru to support our findings of community development. Thirdly, we will discuss a possible further development within the use of OpenStreetMap (OSM) for remote communities. The analysis compares approaches and experiences in different countries on different continents. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018)
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14 pages, 569 KiB  
Article
Interactivity in Cybermedia News: An Interview with Journalists in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador
by Daniel Barredo Ibáñez, Karen Tatiana Pinto Garzón, Úrsula Freundt-Thurne and Narcisa Medranda Morales
Information 2019, 10(5), 173; https://doi.org/10.3390/info10050173 - 09 May 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4091
Abstract
Interactivity is a factor on which cyber journalism is based and summarizes participation options between a user and the medium, a user with other users, and a user with editors. In this study, we focus on the latter in three countries—Colombia, Peru, and [...] Read more.
Interactivity is a factor on which cyber journalism is based and summarizes participation options between a user and the medium, a user with other users, and a user with editors. In this study, we focus on the latter in three countries—Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador—, which have been identified owing to their technological gap and the emerging importance of online communication for their respective societies. Through 35 in-depth interviews with journalists from these countries, we analyzed the concept of interactivity of these professionals and their relationship with users. The results revealed that the journalists positively valued civic contributions as a space for diagnosis, although they do not perceive its informational value, as they relate them to the context of opinions. These results verify the prevalence of journalism as strongly influenced by conventional offline production routines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Citizenship and Participation 2018)
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