The Impacts of Political Socialization on People’s Online and Offline Political Participation—Taking the Youth of Singapore as an Example

Yahhuei Hong,Trisha T C Lin

doi:10.4236/ajc.2017.51003

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increase in political participation among young people worldwide. In light of this heightened political consciousness among youth, the process by which the young might develop political attitudes and become engaged with politics makes a worthy and important research subject. This study thus focuses on whether political socialization by family and peers can affect the online and offline political participation of Singapore youth, also taking into consideration recent changes in the local political environment. The other aspect the study wished to explore whether offline and online news exposure might have a correlation with youth political participation. AC Nielsen Research Pte Ltd. was commissioned to conduct the post-election national telephone survey. Data analysis supported that political socialization by the two sources of family and peers was significantly correlated with young people’s political participation in both offline and online forms. In addition, the results indicate that newspaper reading was associated with youth’s online political participation but not with their offline political participation. And online news exposure was found to significantly correlate with youth’s online political participation. One other result worth mentioning is the positive correlation between mother’s education and respondent’s offline political participation.

Highlights

IntroductionThe U.S 2008 presidential election registered a record-high level of youth voters (Kirby & Kawashima-Ginsberg, 2009)
With respect to the influence of offline news exposure and online news exposure on youth’s political participation, we propose the following hypotheses: H5-1: Offline news exposure is positively related to offline political participation
This study attempted to discover whether political socialization by family and peers are positively related to the political participation of Singapore youth, beginning from the assumption that since political discussions in Singapore are not encouraged in public, the information exchanges that take place with parents in close-knit families and the sharing of political perspectives with peers at the workplace and in school might possibly have a greater influence on young people’s political behaviors

Summary

Introduction

The U.S 2008 presidential election registered a record-high level of youth voters (Kirby & Kawashima-Ginsberg, 2009). This continued support of young people was crucial in determining Obama’s re-election four years later (Pew Research Center, 2012). Youth voters became decisive in the 2012 U.S president election and their electoral participation was likely to be encouraged by their close social networks or campaign and civil organizations (Circle, 2012). The 2011 General Election (GE 2011) in Singapore has been regarded as a “distinct shift” in the political landscape, stemming from a young generation of voters with higher political engagement than before (Lin & Hong, 2015)

Methods

Results

Conclusion