The Impact of Media Choice on Political Knowledge
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v11i1.2364Keywords:
Politics, Media, Civics, Social Media, Television, NewspaperAbstract
In an era of civic ignorance among young people, adolescents are turning to their choice of media to educate themselves about politics. In order to address this, the researcher asks, “How do the differing forms of media affect the political awareness of people between the ages of 14 and 25 in Massachusetts?” A correlational study using a quiz and survey was conducted, looking for patterns between participants’ choice of media and their general political knowledge. Generally, participants who indicated that they used television to receive political news displayed the highest level of political knowledge, indicating that television has the most politically educated audience out of the three types of media that were explored. It was also found that participants who mainly used social media were the least politically educated, scoring the lowest on the quiz. This has strong implications, considering that many teenagers use social media as news outlets.
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