New Media and Political Participation of Cambodia Youth

Abstract

The project conducts in close scope of using new media for political participation within Cambodia. Cambodia is a developing country in Southeast East, and its latest National Assembly election is done in July 2013 in the circumstance that new media are well used for political involvements among young citizens. The goal of this project is to contribute the powerful keynotes to understand the interaction of media in politics for democratic development. With the rational background on the integration of Cambodian new media users into political participation, the study intended to explore two main points on the level of understanding and rhetorical reason of users exposing to Internet for engagement in politics applying use and gratification theory. The study is implemented with survey questionnaires collected from 401 Cambodian voters through online. Finding reveals that new media is the extraordinary trend for exposing senses of democracy among Cambodian citizens. It is the gate of exploring for freedom of expression and social involvement. New media also urge the individuals with the senses of collecting and sharing information, being as the citizen journalists. According to the Use and Gratification theory, individuals access new media for their personal motivation, been seen for information, socialisation, personal identity/ self-expression, while entertainment is not for the choice.