| The general purpose of this paper is to determine what factors are positively linked to civil society engagement in order to identify ways to involve more people in civil society worldwide. More specifically, this paper seeks to evaluate the role the internet plays in determining people's level of civil society engagement when compared with other types of media, such as television, radio, books, and magazines. While there exists a great deal of literature on civil society engagement, this paper distinguishes itself in that it explains how civil society engagement and interest comes to fruition versus merely analyzing levels of engagement within societies. It also differentiates itself in its focus on examining the role of media in civil society engagement, with a particular focus on the role of the internet and its ability (or lack thereof) to reduce the cost of civil society engagement. Furthermore, it is comparative and quantitative, which is somewhat uncommon in civil society literature. This paper uses the most recent wave of the World Values Survey (2005-2008) to measure the dependent variable of civil society engagement, defined as participation in voluntary arts, music, education, or cultural activities, as well as the independent demographic, values, and media variables across fifty-seven countries. Through conducting various OLS regressions, this study finds that internet use, as well as newspaper, magazine, and book consumption, are all negatively correlated with civil society engagement, while radio and TV consumption are positively correlated with engagement. Additionally, it identifies positive linkages between engagement and various demographic variables, including education, income, level of freedom, and family importance, as well as negative linkages between engagement and age, sex, and altruism. Its findings have substantial implications in that, despite its great use as a learning and connectivity tool, internet use alone does not seem to determine whether people will engage in civil society; instead, radio and television seem to be better media predictor variables when it comes to determining engagement. However, as radio and television become less used worldwide in favor of the internet, perhaps the internet will take on some of their characteristics, and become a more accurate predictor of engagement. These findings are valuable in the broader policymaking realm because they identify the best factors to appeal to in order to encourage civil society engagement, a valuable insight for policymakers, as more engaged societies tend to have higher socioeconomic indicators and tend to be governed by policies that more effectively address the needs and wants of said societies. |
