Political participation and civic engagement are terms under constant negotiation in academic research. In order to understand how our active citizenship develops and affects our democratic structures there is need to go beyond seeing media as a tool or method of communication, and rather as an integrated part of the environment in which political participation is conducted. This study investigates how political participation can be channeled, from latency to activity. By interviewing citizens who have historically entered and exited a variety of participatory actions the study managed to identify a new aspect of the citizen’s perspective on citizenship and participation. Building on the notion of stand-by citizenship by Ekman and Amnå (2012), where educated, informed and skilled citizens are monitoring their surroundings until they see need to activate their engagement, I develop the term mediated stand-by citizenship. By this new terminology, the mediated aspect of political participation is conceptualized, and gives an additional approach to studying the stand-by citizens of today.