This collection, comprising contributions from a number of leading international scholars in this field, examines such themes as the possible effects of social media use upon patterns of political socialization; the potential of social media to ameliorate young people's political inequality; the role of social media communications for enhancing the civic education curriculum; and evidence for social media manifesting new forms of political engagement and participation by young citizens.

1. Introduction: The Networked Young Citizen: Social Media, Political Participation and Civic Engagement; Brian D. Loader, Ariadne Vromen and Michael Xenos. PART I: Political Culture, Socialization and Social Media Adoption. 2. The Great Equalizer? Patterns of Social Media Use and Youth Political Engagement; Michael Xenos, Ariadne Vromen and Brian D. Loader. 3. Spaces for Public Orientation? Longitudinal Effects of Internet Use in Adolescence; Mats Ekström, Tobias Olsson, and Adam Shehata. 4. Political Influence across Generations: Partisanship and Candidate Evaluations in the 2008 election; Emily Vraga, , Leticia Bode, Jung Hwan Yang, Stephanie Edgerly, Kjerstin Thorson, Chris Wells, and Dhavan V. Shah. 5. Young citizens and the fine art of disengaging online; Kjerstin Thorson. PART II: Civics and Citizenship Education. 6. Australian reflections on learning to be citizens in and with the social web; Suzanne Mellor. 7. Perceptions of students and teachers in England about how social media are used (and how they could be used) in schools and elsewhere; Ian Davies and Edda Sant. PART III: Agency, Mobilization and the Voice of the Young Citizen. 8. "The Outraged Young": Young Europeans, Civic Engagement and the Social Media in a Time of Crisis; JamesSloam. 9. The Contribution of Websites and Blogs to the Students' Protest Communication Tactics during the 2010 UK University Occupations; Yannis Theocharis