ABSTRACT
New media are frequently seen to offer considerable potential for regenerating democratic participation. Digital technology, it is argued, can ‘give citizens a voice’, enabling them to contribute positively and autonomously to public debates, and to play a more active part in the political process. This is seen to be particularly relevant for the ‘socially excluded’, who have effectively been left behind by mainstream forms of political discourse. And these arguments are most frequently applied to the so-called ‘digital generation’, young people who are apparently developing new forms of global political consciousness and activity through their relationships with new media (Tapscott, 1998). These aspirations continue to exercise considerable fascination, not merely for over-excited cyber-gurus, but also for government policy-makers.
