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More likely to be embedded in new media than their racial peer groups, Black youth have developed what the authors call “digital social capital.” According to Cohen and Kahne, “those using new media to pursue interests and hobbies from sports to technology to gaming may be gaining knowledge, skills and networks, that is, digital social capital, which makes engaging in participatory politics more likely.” This is no small fact; those with such digital social capital are five times more likely to engage in participatory politics, and even more surprisingly, four times more likely to engage in traditional political acts.
— Mark Anthony Neal, The Revolution Will Be Digitized: Black Youth and Digital Social Capital — on the landmark new report from Cathy Cohen & Joseph Kahne, Participatory Politics: New Media and Youth Political Action [PDF]. For more on the project, check out the Youth and Participatory Politics website.
