Digital literacy and civic awareness among Pakistani youth

Abstract

The research paper investigates the correlation between digital literacy and civic awareness of Pakistani youth (16-29). Based on the mixed-methods research, we combined a cross-sectional survey (N = 600) with a targeted qualitative data on 24 semi-structured interviews conducted in four provinces. The measured quantitative instrument was (a) digital literacy (access, technical skills, information evaluation, content creation), (b) civic awareness (knowledge of civic institutions, political efficacy, civic action intent), and (c) control variables (age, gender, urban/rural, education, internet access quality). Associations were explored by descriptive analyses, reliability tests, factor analysis and multiple regression and thematic analysis summarized qualitative results. The findings show that, controlling demographics and educational attainment, the higher the digital literacy (particularly, information-evaluation skills), the higher the civic awareness (b =.38, p<.001). The use of social media forecasted civic discussion and civic mobilization behavior, as well as it also correlated with misinformation exposure and internet harassment. Qualitative data underline these findings: young people state that virtual environments have increased their understanding of social problems but are worried about the reliability of online data and internet access among marginalized groups.