Traditional and “New Media” Forms and Political Socialization

Abstract

Media are an important pillar of political socialization, that is, the way a person learns about the function of democratic principles and institutions in their formative years and beyond. Changes in the social and media environment affect the way new citizens become politically socialized. With the emergence of social media, communication changed toward a socially networked, algorithmic, and highly personalized environment. This new, networked communication logic , in which information is shared, ubiquitously accessible, and aligned to personal interests, reshapes the mechanisms through which media use can impact political socialization outcomes. While cultivation of universal perceptions in the population through mass media becomes less likely, political role models, previously found mostly in mass media, can now be met in citizens' own online communities. In the background of this new logic, research has started to model socialization outcomes as a process, rather than treating them as simultaneous and equivalent results of media use, for example, by investigating how media effects on political participation are mediated through the development of citizenship norms. This entry sheds light on the interplay of networked media use and socialization outcomes and explains how a networked communication logic attenuates traditional patterns of political socialization.

Generational Gaps in Media Trust and its Antecedents in Europe

“…This study is one of the first that tests the relations of a number of various predictors (identified by previous research) with media trust differ across generations. We follow the political socialization argument that experiencing formative years in different times and media systems may be decisive for the extent to which recent developments translate into trust in press and politics for different generations (Ohme and De Vreese 2020). Interestingly, the importance and impact of some predictors of media trust varies across generation.…”

Anything Goes? Youth, News, and Democratic Engagement in the Roaring 2020s

“…However, the way citizens born today will navigate their future world will be affected by the context and the institutions that structure the world of their young life (Sigel 1965). Maybe more importantly than ever, the technologies and the information environment they grow up with shape the ways in which today's youngsters are socialised into the political world (Ohme and De Vreese 2020). Youth is a reference point that can reveal two important things: the past years of a cohort's development and an outlook into the future.…”

The Impact of Social Network Sites on Youth Political Engagement in Russia

“…At the most basic level, the product of the political socialization process is political knowledge, norms, attitudes, and behaviour (Ohme and Vreese 2020). Political knowledge is related to the degree to which one is aware of political information such as the function of various government institutions or the current state of political affairs in one's country.…”

“…The perceived self-determination that is associated with SNS as an agent of political socialization is part of what sets it apart from other such agents. Parents, school and even to some extent peers are not sources of political influence that youth have as much control over (Ohme and Vreese 2020). SNS users construct their own networks that are often based on loose connections-connections that are often far weaker than personal offline networks (Ohme and Vreese 2020).…”

“…Since there can be as many different digital networks as there are users, SNS is able to offer those users a more personalized and granulated information diet, as compared to traditional media that will often seek to cast as broad of a net as possible to gain a larger audience (Ohme and Vreese 2020). In the Russian context, this characteristic of SNS takes on an especially important role.…”