Traditional vs. Social Media: A Phenomenology of Influences on Political Ideological Development in Adolescents.

Abstract

Increased political polarization in Congress and the general public seems to align with the advent of social media. Events such as the 2019 government shutdown highlight Congressional partisanship that has led to unsettling gridlock. As a truly representative democracy could be at stake, it is important to understand how partisanship among citizens mirrors congressional discord. As Ronald Brownstein asserts in The Second Civil War, “extreme partisanship has produced a toxic environment...that disenfranchises the millions of Americans attracted to pragmatic compromise” (2007, p. 13). According to the Pew Research Center, the gap between political values of Democrats and Republicans is now larger than at any point in Pew Research Center history (Mitchell, 2017). The cause of this polarization has been tied to many different sources. Traditional media is a linkage institution—a system that connects the government to the people—that has been examined for spurring hyper partisanship. Legislation and court decisions have extended first amendment rights for traditional media, resulting in more biased news sources and possible misinformation, as well as a lack of consistency across the ideological news spectrum. However, traditional media still has an important filter: a large portion of the population doesn’t have access to their own news show or newspaper to spread their ideals. Social media has also become a prevalent linkage institution for constituents and representatives, and can be an accessible way to find information about candidates, parties, and current events. However, it is also easier to spread misinformation to a significant audience. Many social media programming setups can create an “echo-chamber”, and only share information with citizens that strengthens their political ideology. Another factor differentiating social media from traditional media is the age group it attracts. Approximately 81% of teenagers use social media (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Because of this, more than half of teens get news from platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (Common Sense Media, 2019). As teens develop their political ideologies, social media may affect their exposure to information and thus affect socialization towards polarizing issues. Consequently, teens could be developing polarized views at a younger age, affecting future polity tremendously. As such, it is important to develop a better understanding of the difference between the influence of social media and traditional media on teens' development of political ideology. This leads to the question: Since the rise of social media, how has social media affected teen’s political ideological development? To answer, I must identify the history and effects of traditional and social media, define terms imperative to my research, and analyze teenage use of social media.