Political Socialization: The Political Messages in Televised News and the Effect on Young Adults

Abstract

This study is designed to examine how young adults are socialized through media outlets and how knowledgeable and cynical they are towards these media outlets. Survey research is used in order to answer four research questions pertaining to the amount of television young adults consume, their political knowledge, political cynicism, and bias towards the media. In order to examine these variables, young adults news viewing patterns were analyzed with the listed variables. The cohort group consisted of 397 subjects between the ages of 18 and 24 who were enrolled in classes at a mid sized university in the Midwestern United States. The survey was constructed using measures designed for use in previous research and some were adapted to fit this study. In order to answer the four research questions, a series of statistical tests were conducted. This research yields three key findings. The first key finding is viewers of Fox News are less knowledgeable than viewers of any other cable network. Along with this, Fox News viewers are also the least cynical viewers among cable news networks. The third key finding showed that Democrats perceived more bias in the media than Republicans.