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Political Socialization Analysis
Question #1) Explain what (if any) trends you noticed about the media consumption habits of your respondents[including which specific news sources they consult, their stated confidence in their sources, and how much they keep up with the news] and the political habits/ views of your respondents [including whether they are registered to vote, whether they voted recently and their views on the significance of voting, and their political party identification]. Both media consumption habits AND political habits/ views must be addressed for your response to earn full credit.
(Be VERY specific about the exact number of responses you receive about a particular topic. For example, you would write “1 out of 3 people told me ….”) If you do not notice any trends, demonstrate that this is the case using specific numbers from your respondents. (For example, you would write “0 out of 3 people thought … , but 1 out of 3 people said…”)
The trends on media consumption habit varied with different respondents based on their occupations and preferences. One out of three respondents told me that they only keep up with the news at a low rate of 4 out of 10. This is because most of the news are presented when the respondents are busy carrying out their day to day activities in their workplaces and also the belief that the news will be provided for them through other people. For example, one of the respondents said that they don’t keep up with the news because he would hear about them from his wife. The regular source of the news consulted by the respondents are mainly newspapers and television. Two out of three respondents talked of watching the news from the internet through twitter. Two of the three respondents said that they like to watch the Fox News in the mornings when they are together with their families so as to follow on the current news. According to one of them, the habit of watching the news at the morning is because their spouse loves it but not because they are motivated to do so by other factors. Majority of the interviewed respondents feel confident of their sources of news whereas a smaller number of them are not. For instance, one out of the three respondents confirmed that they are confident on their sources of news since they watch them on a daily basis. On the other side, one of the three respondents thought that the sources of news could even tell lies so as to remain relevant because it’s just business. On the issue of keeping up with the news, two of the three respondents keep up with the news at a rate of seven to ten. One out of the three does not keep up with the news regularly as they believe they will hear of the same news from either other people or from the media.
The political views of the respondent on voting were mostly positive as three out of three respondents confirmed that they are already registered voters. Two of the interviewed candidates told me that they had voted in the last election while one out of three had not voted. The trend observed here based on the responses is that most citizens take part in elections. The respondent’s views on the importance of voting varies in that two out of the three thought that voting is an important exercise. One of the three respondents told me that voting is not necessarily important since at the end of it, the elected politician is the one favored by those in authority. Out of the three respondents, two of them identifies themselves with the Republican political party while one out of three identifies himself with the Democrat party.
Question #2) What might explain the similarities or differences you identified between the results of your own survey and the results of your respondents? What do these results say about your “political socialization?” As you answer the question, be sure to include all of the following content, in this order:
Begin your response by stating the complete and fully quoted definition of political socialization from our textbook.
Explain the similarities and/or differences between your responses and those of your respondents
Name each of the seven “agents of socialization” noted in the textbook. Then select which of the seven “agents of socialization” most contributes to those similarities or differences (between your responses and those of your respondents). Conclude by explaining why they do. (Be sure that your analysis is clear and thorough.)
According to the book ‘American Democracy Now’, Political socialization refers to the process by which people develop their political values and opinions throughout their lives. There are various similarities between my responses and those of the respondents. One of the similarities is that we all think that voting is important and that is why elections campaigns are taken seriously, with people trying to identify themselves to certain political parties. Another similarity is that most of them don’t keep up with the news as they have a rating of less than 5.
On the other hand, several differences can be deduced from survey. One of the differences is that all the respondents are registered as voters and have participated in elections but on the other side, I am not a registered voter nor have I percolated in any voting in an election. Another difference is that I don’t identify with any political party because am not a registered voter but the rest of the respondents belong to a registered political party. Another difference is that we get our news from different sources. On my side, I get most of my news from the social media that is Twitter, watch ABC 30 news or at times GMA. Others stated that they obtained their news from different sources that include CNN, Fox News and BBC. Every channel provides different news and this makes the perception to be different.
Another difference is that I believe that most of the news, 75% comes from social media while the respondents claimed that some of the news comes from the social media with others saying that none comes from social media. In regards to keeping up with political events in the news, some variations do result, on my side, only a small percentage of the political news that I probably keep up with since I feel like they keep on repeating the same issue and arguing about what people don’t want to hear all day. In regards to the news accuracy, there are also variations that do exist between my response and that of the respondents. Basing in my experience, I don’t think that the news sources are accurate as people do always lie in an attempt to protect most people’s feelings. Some found the news sources moderately accurate while others found the sources to be accurate providing a rating of 7 out of 10.
The seven agents of socialization include, mass media, school, peer group, family, religion, government and work place. Among the seven agents of socialization, mass media and government most contributed to the similarities and differences in opinions. The reason behind is that the questions asked in the survey were political which directly refers to the government and also the social media as a news source. The differences came in through identifying to a political party and the belief that social media contributes to most news. Work Place can also be said to influence the differences as there were differences between a student and a police officer respondent.
