3. This chapter is divided into two
sections:
The first section examines what Americans know about
politics, what they don’t know, and the reasons why
knowledge levels are not as high as they could or should
be.
The second portion examines the media’s impact on
knowledge acquisition. Several different approaches to
media and political information-holding are introduced,
followed by a discussion of political learning in a digital
age.
4. Out Line:
Media & Political Knowledge
What do Americans know about Politics?
Why do People know so Little?
The Case for a Minimally Informed Citizenry
Mass Communication Perspective
Psychological Approach
Sociological Approach
Putting it Together
Political knowledge in the age of internet
Conclusions
5. Media & Political
Knowledge:
Nowadays, The media are the major vehicles that
transmit political information to citizens.
Political scientists Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn
(1998) note,
“citizens must be capable of understanding what is
at stake in politics, what their alternatives are, and
what their own positions are” (p. 9).
6. What do American know
About Politics??
Delli Carpini and Keeter
concluded that:
“Americans are modestly
informed about politics and have
basic knowledge of a number of
aspects of government.”
7. Ninety-nine percent of Americans can correctly name
the U.S. president, compared to 89 percent of Italians
who can name their head of state!
A more recent survey of knowledge of the 2012
presidential campaign, conducted by the Pew
Research Center for the People and the Press,
reported similar results.
8. WHY DO PEOPLE KNOW SO LITTLE ?
Americans’ ignorance of basic facts about
government is disturbing. Americans know
significantly less about political issues,
particularly international problems, than
citizens from a host of European countries
(Aalberg & Curran, 2012).
10. Five explanations have been advanced :
One reason is lack of incentive.
A second explanation of low knowledge levels
emphasizes the way news is presented.
A third explanation lies in the expansion in media
choices.
Fourth, leaders sometimes deliberately dissemble
information, intentionally conveying misleading
political facts.
The final explanation for low knowledge levels
lies in the increasing disconnect between politics
and everyday life.
12. MEDIA AND POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE
With Different Perspective:
The mass media and Internet play an important
role, offering the raw materials from which
citizens construct beliefs about politics.
We gain insight on the impact media exert on
political knowledge by exploring different
perspectives on the issue.
13. The approaches emphasize concepts
from the fields of :
Mass communication,
Psychology Approach,
Sociology Approach.
14. Mass Communication Perspective:
A mass communication perspective examines the
distinctive effects that a particular communication
medium exerts on knowledge.
There are Three Mass Communication approaches.
1. Newspapers
2. Tele Vision
3. constructionism
15. Newspapers contain detailed articles
with considerable information. Their
format allows people to re-read
articles, which can encourage deeper
processing of information.
Newspapers:
Newspaper readership has long been
associated with high levels of political
knowledge (Becker &Whitney, 1980;
Robinson & Levy, 1986).
16. Tele Vision:
Newspapers were supplanted by television in the
middle of the 20th century, as TV became the
dominant medium for conveying news to the public.
TV can also be particularly effective in imparting
information to audiences that are deficient in formal
education.
(Graber, 2001; Prior, 2002)
17. Constructionism:
Constructionism examines how people construct
meaning from media messages. It focuses on how
individuals form beliefs and political attitudes from
exposure to media..
A more specific mass communication approach is
constructionism.
18. Psychological Approach:
A psychological viewpoint focuses more directly on the many
cognitive and emotional attributes individuals bring to political
media. Like constructionism, the psychological view emphasizes
that you cannot appreciate the effects of news media on
knowledge without understanding how people process or think
about news.
A key psychological factor is a schema, defined as “a cognitive
structure consisting of organized knowledge about situations
and individuals that has been abstracted from prior experiences”
(Graber, 1988, p. 28).
19. Sociology Approach:
A sociological view emphasizes the
influence of broad demographic
and social structural factors.
Education is a time-honored
predictor of knowledge. With more
education comes significantly
greater knowledge about politics
(Delli Carpini &
Keeter,1996;Fraile,2011).
20. Putting It Together:
First, the media play an instrumental role in informing
Americans. For all their faults, the media provide information
that is indispensable to informed citizenship. “Those who follow
the news in any medium are more knowledgeable than their
peers who do not,” (Chaffee & Yang, 1990 p. 138)
Second, we should be suspicious about simple statements
about the “powers of media.”
Third, individuals bring a great deal to the media equation.
Fourth, the research reminds us of the adage that life ain’t fair.
The richer and more educated know more about politics, and
news can exacerbate these gaps in knowledge.
22. Increasingly, the Internet has supplanted television as
the primary news source for young adults under 30
(Pew Research Center for the People and the Press,
2011). Over the span of just three years—from 2007 to
2010—the number of 18- to 29-year-olds who regard
the Internet as their primary news source has almost
doubled, growing from 34 percent to 65 percent. A
third of young adults under 30 reported that they saw
news on a social networking site the previous day.
(Pew Research Center for the People and the Press,
2012).
23. “A democracy can’t be strong if its
citizenship is weak,” observed political
scientist William A. Galston (2011).
