Paper 2 Flashcards
“Very few people gain knowledge from direct experiences” (intro)
I explain this a little later in the paper, but essentially individuals like you and I do not show up to the white house daily to hear what the government has to say. The media does, (tv newspaper media) however, and then relays it to the public (us).
political information vs knowledge (intro)
political information: information pertaining to our political system
political knowledge: I define twice, it’s understanding the political information correctly and being able to retain it. I use both terms because individuals use social media to gain political information, but the debate around whether people gain political knowledge is still occurring.
“media”
When I am discussing social media specifically, I note it. When I say media broadly, I am talking about legacy news such as televised news and newspaper.
Current research
Information about Trump - negative. I used this to demonstrate that ya our media has a tendency to bash Trump, whether we believe we should bash him or not. Thus makes it more plausible that our political leaders like biden and bernie are following that same pattern.
Edgerly, Thorson, and Wells, 2018 (page 1 and throughout)
how young adults learn about events that occurred in the past week during the 2016 election. Did an online survey of 50 new adults for 23 days.This research looked specifically at predictors of political knowledge gaining (like partisanship, enthusiasm/willingness to learn) but I used this study more to demonstrate that younger people do in fact use social media to understand the political world and this study discusses this throughout. I also used this source to define political knowledge and the positive effects it can have on political participation like voting and campaigning. study showed voting increased.MOST IMPORTANTLY they found that individuals who solely use digital media (including social media and online news articles) have a positive relationship with political knowledge.
Dimitrova, Shehata, Stromback, Nord, 2018 (mostly page 6-7)
While this study does demonstrate that there are weak effects of digital media and political knowledge, I mostly used this source to demonstrate the positive aspects of using digital media. (post pos, causal study). In order to see effects, one must have political knowledge already and be interested in learning more.
Iyengar 1990 (page 4)
this study demonstrated the effects of framing. In essence, individuals within the study were shown different news stories, thematic vs episodic. When shown episodic frames, individuals were more likely to cast blame on the individual portrayed. When shown thematic frames, they cast blame on society or gov. I used this source, however, to explain that frames are necessary for average individuals to understand the news.
Phillips 2019 (page 4)
This source is key because it would’ve been a source I used within my analysis if allowed. Phillips discusses agenda-setting and agenda-extension (Shaw & McCombs, and Kuypers) and ultimately adds this idea of agenda-dismissal. He brings an important aspect to the idea of agenda and framing - what is left out is needing to be examined just as much as what’s in the frame does. As in my case, the educational piece that may be left out.
Carr 2012 (page 4)
I used this source just to explain the relationship / power dynamic between the government, media, and the public. Traditionally, as shown through this source, we see this as a top down process.
Chaffee and Frank 1996 (page 5)
a review of empirical work discussing how individuals receive information from television and newspaper. I used this source as background information on how we ended up researching social media. People learn more from the television if they are not actively seeking it. Overall, however, studies like this demonstrate newspaper being the most informational but both are worthy for information seeking.
Drew and Weaver 2006 (page 6)
this study was important to demonstrate that over multiple studies conducted between 1988 - 2004, that television was in fact an important predictor of gaining political information
McAllister 2016 (mostly page 8)
large national survey. This research was used to demonstrate that yes, younger people turn to social media such as facebook and twitter to gain knowledge and there are strong effects to this. Increased use of the internet (social media included here) significantly increased political knowledge and increased political knowledge leads to younger people turning out to vote.
Shehata and Stromback, 2018 (page 7)
this study really looks at if social media can take over other forms of information, like traditional legacy usage during both an election setting and a nonelection setting. They found that traditional news sources lead to political knowledge, while using social media in lieu of traditional media sources did not compensate for the lack of legacy news.
Boatwright and Kent 2018 (page 9)
i used this research to understand scapegoating theory better. The authors argue throughout that scapegoating should no longer be a part of our communication because of the negative effects that have been demonstrated.
Reshon 1975 (page 9)
random sample used of undergraduate students (also helpful, I’m talking mostly about young people). I used this source as a way to understand political efficacy and how when one feels out of control, THEY MAY lead to feeling out of control and lack of participation. This study, however, says UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES, that there could be an increased need for participation. However, i feel with the definition of political efficacy mixed with scapegoating, which Renshon does not discuss, is an important factor into political efficacy.
