Self-Actualizing Citizenship: A Model For All?

One specific type of citizen identity that Bennett discusses is Emerging Youth Experience of Self-Actualizing Citizenship (AC). The characteristics of the AC model, as described by Bennett includes: “diminished sense of government obligation — higher sense of individual purpose; voting is less meaningful than other, more personally defined acts such as consumerism, community volunteering, or transnational activism; mistrust of media and politicians is reinforced by negative mass media environment; favors loose networks of community action — often established or sustained through friendships and peer relations and thin social ties maintained by interactive information technologies.” Using this model of citizenship, there may be implications regarding the future of news.

The AC model depicts a media consumer who is more individualistic in nature. This type of individual thrives in the digital media environment, which has been “unbundled” and offers readers the option to actively select the topics they wish to consume. Combining this nature with a predisposition toward personally meaningful actions and a distrust of the media could create a type of media consumer who prefers to generate their own news

In our class discussions on news media innovations and the development of social capital, the concept of consumer-generated news was a topic that prompted some debate. It seems that Bennett’s AC model that is more prevalent among today’s youth would align with the production of consumer-generated news. If the youth of today prefer to be more individualistic in their news consumption, then the news of the future may have a more consumer-generated approach. Additionally, this philosophy would align more with Dewey’s outlook on journalism, which involves audience participation in news.

While I feel this outlook may provide an idealistic view of journalism in the future, I can’t argue that there are elements of the AC model that apply to my news consumption. Specifically, there is an element of mistrust of some media and politicians that leads to selective news consumption patterns in my everyday life. For example, I read the New York Times online, and go to CNN.com and MSNBC.com for my everyday news. I visit these sites not because I feel they agree with my political views, but because other news sources such as Fox News are so counter-intuitive to my views that I can’t go to their sites. Where I may differ from the AC model is that while my citizen identity may influence how I consume the news, it doesn’t motivate me to produce my own news, through a consumer-driven program such as CNN’s iReport.

These shifts in citizen identity may result in a more fractured media environment than that which currently exists today, which would impact the future of news. What will be interesting to see is whether it moves the model of news more toward Dewey’s outlook or Lippmann. Perhaps the reality will lie somewhere in the middle.