A Concept Analysis of Digital Citizenship for Democratic Citizenship Education in the Internet Age

Despite the importance of promoting socially responsible citizenship in the Internet age, there is a paucity of research on how digital citizenship or digital citizens might be defined and/or investigated. This study found 4 major categories that construct digital citizenship: Ethics, Media and Information Literacy, Participation/Engagement, and Critical Resistance. Based on these comprehensive and interconnected categories of digital citizenship, the author argues that digital citizenship needs to be understood as a multidimensional and complex concept in connection with an interrelated but non-linear relationship with offline (place-based) civic lives.