Mobile Edition
Print
Get the Mag
Weekly UpdatesA democracy assumes that its citizens have motivation and agency to affect society through established political processes (Youniss & Yates, 1999). Social scientists in the last half-century have become increasingly interested in what motivates and socializes people into becoming active citizens of a democracy. Much of this interest stems from observations about the decline in key indicators of an active citizenry, including behaviors such as voting (Teixeira, 1987) and other forms of political participation (Putnam, 2000), as well as affective dimensions such as confidence in government (Cappella & Jamieson, 1996), and trust (Damico, Conway, & Damico, 2000). Meanwhile, numerous scholars of political socialization of youth attempt to answer the same question as some of the same variables are declining among younger adults as well (Rahn & Transue, 1998). Contrasting reports suggest that youth are participating at increased rates (Lopez, 2004). This suggests an unclear outlook for the active citizenship of young Americans in the future, and encourages scholars to closely analyze those characteristics of youth associated with democratic citizenship. This study assesses youth attention to television news and late-night comedy shows as one such characteristic that could provide key insights into this area of research.
Popular media and polling reports have emphasized the increased participation among youth in the last two presidential elections. Organizations such as the Corporation for National & Community Service, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) have reported that adolescents and college-age students are participating in volunteer and civic activities in increasing numbers. For instance, over 75% of high school seniors reported volunteering in 2001 compared to 62% in 1976 (Lopez, 2004). Importantly, such participation has been shown to influence activity at a later age; for example, 20% of high school sophomores reported volunteering in 1990, and of this same class, over twice that amount reported volunteering at age 20 (Lopez). Understanding that such participation might influence civic activity at a later age, it becomes of great consequence to understand the mechanisms that drive this activity among adolescents. The questions for mass communication researchers become, does media use play a role in predicting this civic participation? If so, how?
Defining Political Socialization
There has been great attention to political socialization in the mass communication literature, even though children must learn many facets of life in order to become socialized members of society. One reason for this focus is because scholars understand that democracy isn't exactly a natural state of being; instead, it consists of habits and competencies that require skills that must be acquired (Barber, 1984; Parker, 1996). These skills are obtained (or, arguably, not obtained in many cases) through the primary socializing agents of school, family, and the media (Kelly & Donohew, 1999).
Literature on political socialization proliferated in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, however, many scholars claim that the conceptualization of this process was narrowly focused or even biased (McLeod, 2000; Youniss & Yates, 1999). Earlier definitions emphasized an internalization of the norms existing in the current political system (e.g., Sigel, 1965), yet recent research has demonstrated that socialization is not merely a "top-down transmission model" (McLeod, p. 46); rather the child serves as an active participant in his or her socialization (McDevitt, 2006; McDevitt & Chaffee, 2002).
One of the main scholarly foci of political socialization is the development of citizenship or civic duty in young people (McLeod, 2000). As the more traditional model of political socialization has transitioned into the contemporary perspective that a child is an active participant in his or her socialization, scholars have begun to think of citizenship as commitment to actions that benefit others and the common good (e.g., Sherrod, Flanagan, & Youniss, 2002). Media are considered to be an
important socializing agent in this process. That is, they can instigate pluralistic communication, just as certain family communication patterns can (Chaffee & Yang, 1990). However, the role of media use in citizenship development among youth has not been fully explored, particularly as it relates to civic or political participation (McLeod, 2000; Sherrod et al., 2002). In fact, Chaffee and Kanihan (1997) remind readers that television and newspapers change rapidly, and that their roles in political socialization need to be continually reassessed.
Adolescents and Political Socialization Through Media
Because the majority of people are not personally involved in politics, most of what individuals know about the political environment comes via the mass media (Becker, McCombs, & McLeod, 1975). In this way, the political world comes to people as a "second-hand reality," helping to form not only individuals' first political cognitions, but changing them over time (Becker et al., 1975).
Perhaps more importantly, even though political socialization begins in preschool years, understanding of abstract political issues is not likely to occur until adolescence, when young people are more cognitively developed (Austin & Pinkleton, 2001 ). Because adolescents are able to think more abstractly and less egocentrically, their potential for understanding politics and news programming is greatly increased over that of younger children.
Chaffee, Jackson-Beeck, Durall, and Wilson (1977) concluded that mass media constitute the principal source of political information for young people. This influential study also found that newspapers and television are the dominant tools for learning political information, and that young people attribute considerable influence on their opinions to the media. Finally, these authors asserted that children do not necessarily adopt the public affairs media use of their parents.
Media have become a more powerful agent of socialization as a result of a decline in the role of the family as a socializing agent (Arnett, 1995). This is particularly true for adolescents who seek independence and look for sources of socialization outside the family (Kelly & Donohew, 1999). Thus, understanding how adolescents use media becomes an important method for identifying the ways in which they are socialized into a culture.
A typology of the most common media uses by adolescents cannot cover all media uses, but it provides some insight into the uses and gratifications sought by adolescents. Arnett (1995) suggested that adolescents use media for 1) entertainment; 2) identity formation; 3) high sensation; 4) coping; and 5) youth culture identification. One will notice that keeping up with news or public affairs does not make this list. Yet public affairs media use could be said to fulfill the socialization process in which adolescents engage to prepare for future roles (Arnett, 1995; Rogers, 1985). The focus of the present study is television, because the programming on this medium has been identified as the predominant channel by which young people first encounter political information and public affairs news (Chaffee & Kanihan, 1997), although future work should also assess the comparative role of the Internet in socialization.
Beyond traditional public affairs media use, scholars have become increasingly interested in late-night comedy television. Specifically, research has examined the audiences of these programs, how the programs compare to other types of television news, and what effects watching such shows might have. Although much of this research does not examine adolescents, studies do show that the general audience for late-night television is younger than for public affairs programs (e.g., Hollander, 2005; Young & Tisinger, 2006).
Watching late-night comedy shows has been associated with a number of both positive and negative effects, such as attention to traditional news sources, political learning, candidate evaluations, political efficacy, and political cynicism. Young and Tisinger (2006) found that watching late-night comedy television is associated with other forms of news exposure, including local and national television news. These authors also found that an increase in perceived learning from late-night comedy television was associated with an increase in learning from other forms of television news. However, Hollander (2005) found that there is a curvilinear effect of viewing late-night television on political learning, such that those who watch a moderate amount tend to recall the most campaign information, while those who watched either low or high amounts tend to recall less.
In another study, Young (2004) found that late-night comedy viewing did not have a main effect on attitudes, but the impact of these ratings varied by level of political knowledge. According to Baumgartner and Morris (2006), exposure to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was associated with decreased candidate evaluations, decreased external political efficacy, and increased cynicism with the news media. Hollander (2005), who assessed solely political learning as an outcome of viewing such programming, concluded that "young people are capable of gleaning at least modest amounts of campaign information from such content, but how competent it leaves them to participate in a meaningful manner remains an open question" (p. 412). This study tests whether attention to various types of televised content influences perceived competence--or efficacy--and actual participation in politics and the community.
Civic Participation
Participation in extracurricular activities as an adolescent has been found to influence political participation later in the life cycle (McFarland & Thomas, 2006; Smith, Denton, Faris & Regnerus, 2002). Current polls show that adolescents and college-age students are participating in volunteer and civic activities at an increased rate compared with their same age group in previous generations (Corporation for National & Community Service, 2006). Volunteer rates among youth aged 16-24 has increased steadily over the last three years, from 21.9% to 24.4% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005). The report from the Corporation for National & Community Service found that high school students who participated in school-based service were more likely to participate in other volunteering activities, and to feel that they can make a difference in their communities. But students do not participate solely through school; some participate through religious groups, civic organizations, or neighborhood groups.
FEED