World wide trend participation

Worldwide Trend: #Participation

Abstract This study explored the attributes Digital Natives as users of the micro-blogging site, Twitter and the characteristics that their tweets show in the online community. From Henry Jenkin’s participatory culture theory, I described how Filipino Digital Natives participate online by looking at the content of their tweets. I have incorporated the levels of participation, described by the authors Livingstone (2007), Pine and Gilmore (1999), Park (2007) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2007), into either active or passive participation. I analyzed two sets of tweets—personal tweets and my Twitter network’s tweets. I have organized the tweets’ content and grouped them according to preeminent topics. Results show that Filipino Digital Natives’ participation depends on several individualistic motivational factors and external factors. Familiarity and relevance to certain topics are important for them to participate, thus the emphasis on the need of contextualization of such topics. The “I” centered features of the tweets must not be seen as demeaning but rather as a potential for the Filipino Digital natives to self-reflect and self-analyze for active participation in communities.

Key words: digital natives, Twitter, participation, active participant, passive participant, participatory culture

View Thesis: http://iskwiki.upd.edu.ph/flipbooks/worldwidet587/