Platform-dependent effects of incidental exposure to political news on political knowledge and political participation

This study reports a survey of media use, political knowledge, and participation in local elections by people in three small Midwest communities. This study showed that newspaper political news exposure strongly predicted political participation, perceived importance of local municipal elections, and self-reported voting. It did not, however, predict knowledge about local government structure.

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By any memes necessary? Small political acts, incidental exposure and memes during the 2017 UK general election

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations ◽

10.1177/1369148120930594 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 136914812093059

Author(s):

Liam McLoughlin ◽

Rosalynd Southern

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Political Participation ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

Political Campaigns ◽

General Election ◽

Political Information ◽

Incidental Exposure ◽

Policy Information ◽

High Level

Following the 2017 UK general election, there was much debate about the so-called ‘youthquake’, or increase in youth turnout (YouGov). Some journalists claimed it was the ‘. . . memes wot won it’. This article seeks to understand the role of memes during political campaigns. Combining meta-data and content analysis, this article aims to answer three questions. First, who creates political memes? Second, what is the level of engagement with political memes and who engages with them? Finally, can any meaningful political information be derived from memes? The findings here suggest that by far the most common producers of memes were citizens suggesting that memes may be a form of citizen-initiated political participation. There was a high level of engagement with memes with almost half a million shares in our sample. However, the level of policy information in memes was low suggesting they are unlikely to increase political knowledge.

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Newspaper Readership as a Determinant of Political Knowledge and Activity

Newspaper Research Journal ◽

10.1177/073953298600700206 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 47-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Hampden H. Smith

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Political Participation ◽

Strong Relationship ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

National Election ◽

Political News ◽

Using Data ◽

Different Levels

Using data from 1972, 1976 and 1980 national election surveys, the study supports previous research showing newspaper readership relates strongly to both political knowledge and activity. Although there is a strong relationship for newspaper readership, there is none for viewing political news on television. Finally, the strong relationship between newspaper readership and political participation remains at different levels of social class and education.

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Facing the Challenge of Democracy

10.23943/princeton/9780691151106.001.0001 ◽

2011 ◽

Keyword(s):

Political Participation ◽

Interest Groups ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

The Political ◽

Political Thinking ◽

Democratic Representation ◽

The Public ◽

Party Polarization

Citizens are political simpletons—that is only a modest exaggeration of a common characterization of voters. Certainly, there is no shortage of evidence of citizens' limited political knowledge, even about matters of the highest importance, along with inconsistencies in their thinking, some glaring by any standard. But this picture of citizens all too often approaches caricature. This book brings together leading political scientists who offer new insights into the political thinking of the public, the causes of party polarization, the motivations for political participation, and the paradoxical relationship between turnout and democratic representation. These studies propel a foundational argument about democracy. Voters can only do as well as the alternatives on offer. These alternatives are constrained by third players, in particular activists, interest groups, and financial contributors. The result: voters often appear to be shortsighted, extreme, and inconsistent because the alternatives they must choose between are shortsighted, extreme, and inconsistent.

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Gender inequalities in political participation and political engagement among young people in Europe: Are young women less politically engaged than young men?

Politics ◽

10.1177/02633957211028813 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026339572110288 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maria Grasso ◽

Katherine Smith

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Political Participation ◽

Young Women ◽

Young Men ◽

Political Engagement ◽

Gender Inequalities ◽

Political Inequality ◽

Political News ◽

Current State ◽

Detailed Picture

This paper contributes to the literature by examining gender inequalities in political participation and political engagement among young people from a comparative perspective. By analyzing data on young people from nine European countries collected in 2018, we examine gender inequalities in participation in various modes of conventional and unconventional activism as well as related attitudes, broader political engagement and key determinants, cross-nationally, in order to provide a detailed picture of the current state of gender inequalities in political activism among young people in Europe. Our results allow us to speak to extant theorizing about gender inequalities by showing that the extent of political inequality between young men and women is less marked than one might expect. While the gender gaps in political participation for activities such as confrontational types of protest are small or absent, we find that young women are actually more active in petitioning, buycotting, and volunteering in the community. Young men instead are more active than young women in a majority of the nine countries analysed with respect to more institutional forms of participation linked to organizations and parties, various types of online political participation, and broader political engagement measures, such as internal political efficacy and consumption of political news through various channels. However, young men also appear to be more sceptical at least of certain aspects of democratic practice relative to young women.

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Political Talk Over Here, Over There, Over Time

British Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s0007123400000053 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 99-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 65

Author(s):

STEPHEN E. BENNETT ◽

RICHARD S. FLICKINGER ◽

STACI L. RHINE

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Great Britain ◽

Political Participation ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

The United States ◽

Public Affairs ◽

Political Behaviour ◽

Political Talk ◽

Important Form ◽

Over Time

Data from Great Britain and the United States from the late 1950s to the early 1990s show relatively little change in the frequency with which citizens engage in political discussions, with whom they are likely to speak, and the variables that shape their propensity to engage in political talk. In addition, analyses of the data show that discussing politics enhances citizens' knowledge of public affairs, even net of other variables known to affect political knowledge. Students of political behaviour and those interested in strengthening democracy need to treat political discussions as an important form of political participation.

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Youth comprehension of political messages in YouTube videos

New Media & Society ◽

10.1177/1461444815611593 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 522-541 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Benjamin T Bowyer ◽

Joseph E Kahne ◽

Ellen Middaugh

Keyword(s):

Immigration Policy ◽

Online Survey ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

Prior Beliefs ◽

Political Messages ◽

Political Communications ◽

Incidental Exposure ◽

Youtube Videos ◽

Potential Impact ◽

Do So

This article investigates the extent to which young people are able to comprehend the political messages contained in satirical videos that circulate online. We do so through an analysis of responses to videos embedded within an online survey of 15- to 25-year-olds ( N = 2070) conducted in 2011. Respondents were randomly assigned to view one of two short, humorous YouTube videos relating to immigration policy and were then asked questions that tested their comprehension of what they had seen. Substantial proportions of our sample were unable to answer these correctly. Further analysis indicates that individuals’ levels of political knowledge and their predisposition to agree with the message contained in the video are strong predictors of comprehension. These findings indicate that the potential impact of incidental exposure to online political communications is smaller than many scholars have assumed, particularly when the message is inconsistent with the viewer’s prior beliefs.

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Sharing and Commenting Facilitate Political Learning on Facebook: Evidence From a Two-Wave Panel Study

Social Media + Society ◽

10.1177/20563051211047876 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 205630512110478

Author(s):

Dam Hee Kim ◽

Brian E. Weeks ◽

Daniel S. Lane ◽

Lauren B. Hahn ◽

Nojin Kwak

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Presidential Election ◽

Media Use ◽

Panel Study ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

Political Information ◽

Political Discussion ◽

Mediation Model ◽

Political Learning ◽

Political News

Social media, as sources of political news and sites of political discussion, may be novel environments for political learning. Many early reports, however, failed to find that social media use promotes gains in political knowledge. Prior research has not yet fully explored the possibility based on the communication mediation model that exposure to political information on social media facilitates political expression, which may subsequently encourage political learning. We find support for this mediation model in the context of Facebook by analyzing a two-wave survey prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In particular, sharing and commenting, not liking or opinion posting, may facilitate political knowledge gains.

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Information literacy as a tool to support political participation

Library and Information Research ◽

10.29173/lirg722 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 40 (123) ◽

pp. 14-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lauren N Smith

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Political Participation ◽

Information Literacy ◽

Information Needs ◽

Political Engagement ◽

Information Provision ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

School Libraries ◽

Political Events ◽

Potential Tool

Recent political events have raised the profile of information literacy as a potential tool for supporting informed political participation. This article emphasises the importance of supporting political engagement through information provision and information literacy development, drawing on findings from two research projects to discuss what information needs young people have in relation to political engagement and identify some examples of work taking place in Scottish school libraries to help young people develop political knowledge and feel able to participate meaningfully in democratic processes. Some of the main barriers to libraries engaging with this work are also discussed.

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Are politically engaged citizens more democratic? A glimpse from Brazil

International Political Science Review ◽

10.1177/01925121211056578 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 019251212110565

Author(s):

Camila Mont’Alverne ◽

Diego Moraes ◽

Thaíse Kemer

Keyword(s):

Political Participation ◽

Representative Sample ◽

Multivariate Regression ◽

Regression Models ◽

Interpersonal Trust ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

Significant Part ◽

Political Interest ◽

Support For Democracy ◽

Do So

A significant part of the Western literature on democracy assumes that political participation leads to citizens being more committed to democratic values. However, we do not know to what extent this is true in young democracies with an authoritarian tradition. Hence, this article aims to examine whether politically engaged Brazilians are more democratic. To do so, we analyzed whether there is any association between political participation, support for democracy, and democracy relativization through multivariate regression models. Our database comprises a representative sample of 2417 interviews with the electorate of São Paulo in 2019. The results show a statistically significant association between unconventional political participation and support for democracy. General political participation is associated with non-relativization of democracy only, showing a limited relationship between support for democracy and participation. Other variables, such as political interest, political knowledge, and interpersonal trust, are also associated with higher support for democracy.

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