HOW SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT YOUTH CIVIC PARTICIPATION: A

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PAKISTAN AND JORDAN

Abstract

With the advent use of technology, people of both Pakistan and Jorden are using social networking

sites more. The vast majority of such people is characterized by their shared use of social media,

in particular Facebook and Twitter, which have played a key role in organizing and mobilizing the

efforts of thousands of citizens. The grassroots initiatives are constantly trying to find new

innovative ways of using those digital platforms to their advantages in order to meet the challenges

of such people. In this context, new forms of civic engagement emerge that translate to a successful

use of social media for civic mobilization purposes.

The goal of this study is to understand how social media are used by such an initiative in the

context of the flood crises, earth quack crises, refugees’ crises, etc. With the aim of providing a

holistic picture of how social media are used by a grassroots initiative, firstly, it will investigate

how different online platforms are used by identifying what messages are circulated through them

for what purpose. Secondly, it will be examined why those platforms are used in a certain way by

identifying reasons and motivations behind this specific social media use.

Using the example of one particular case of civic activism through social media, this research is

approached from a case study perspective of afghan refugees and Arab countries refugees’ crises.

By combining a qualitative content analysis of their Facebook page, Facebook group, Twitter page

and website, as well as in-depth interviews or survey from both countries (Pakistan and Jordan)

with initiators and/or volunteers, the actual practices of social media usage will assessed as well

as reasons and motivations for this specific usage examined.

In particular, a systematic literature review is desired to conduct to explore the studies regarding

civic participation on social media for the crises occurred in particular time span. We shall focus

on the similar crises occurred in both countries, i.e., Pakistan and Jordan. Social media have rich

content regarding the afghan refugees and Arab countries refugees’ crises. Therefore, we shall

focus on the said sub-topic. The output of the said exercise will be the crises list. Further, the civic

participation on the aforesaid topic will be explored from the literature. In order to make

research more interesting, social media pages will be explored, mined, and analyzed with the

help of data mining techniques. Additionally, we will make two surveys to evaluate the civic

participation from the audience of both countries.

This research will highlight the Civic Participation of people of different countries on same type

of crises using social media.

Systematic Literature Data Mining (DM) Survey

Review Techniques

List of Social Crises Civic Participation Data Set Two surveys from Pakistan
discussed and Jordan

Mined and Analyzed via

DM Techniques

Evaluation
List of Civic Participation List of Civic Participation