Political and Technology Efficacy among Millennials
| Author(s) | Schechter, Amanda | |
| Date Accessioned | 2014-04-28T16:10:18Z | |
| Date Available | 2014-04-28T16:10:18Z | |
| Publication Date | 2013-05 | |
| Abstract | Political participation is a vital aspect of the American democratic process. Although the Millennial generation is the future of our country, young adults have traditionally been the least engaged age group. Theories such as the Civic Volunteerism model have attributed the participation disparity to the lack of benefits that young people receive from the political system involvement. Others have cited the exclusion of youths from political campaigns as a contributor to disengagement. However, in the past decade, the percentage of youth voters has raised to around 50 percent in tandem with social-media integrated political campaigns that successfully targeted Millennials. As such, this study analyzes how young adults are using new technology and social media to engage with politics, and how their online participation affects their political behavior offline. Specifically, it looks at how social media relationships between a user and an acquaintance and a user and an official account relate to offline participation. Results reinforce previous findings that political social media use is associated with political attention and in-person political discussion. Results also suggest a relationship between offline participation and information seeking after viewing social media posts. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. | en_US |
| Advisor | Lindsay H. Hoffman | |
| Program | Political Science | |
| URL | http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/12941 | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| Title | Political and Technology Efficacy among Millennials | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |