Abstract:

This study focuses on the impact of digital communication platforms on how current college students perceive political and social issues. Populism and political polarization seem to be gaining ground in the Western world. A good number of studies reveal this worrying trend. Populism can be regarded as a growing distrust, a grassroots reaction against established political structures, political institutions and political actors. Political polarization is the tendency to move toward the extremes of the political spectrum. In politically polarized times an increasing number of citizens become reluctance to find a compromise. It may seem paradoxical that both phenomena, populism and political polarization, happen simultaneously. The reaction to the mistrust – to some extent – leads to seek shelter in the extremes of radical partisanships. The political establishment’s urge to find a consensus may be perceived as a sign of weakness, or worse, as an inclination to corruption. In a polarized social and political scenario, issues are used as ideological flags. Conservative and liberal parties grab an issue, wrap it in their own rhetorical code until they “own” it. Conservative and liberal media instrumentally use those issues giving them weight and relevance in their coverage. This phenomenon is not new, of course. McCombs and Shaw exposed in the early 1970s the agenda setting effect of mass media. Since then, this very well known and documented effect has been being instrumentalized to push issues into the public’s agenda. All along, mass media functioned as the accomplices of political actors and institutions. This study’s starting point is the curiosity about how the penetration of social media may be affecting the agenda setting effect of the mass media in the current college generation. Our study shows that close to 80% of the sampled students spend more than 2 hours daily in their social media accounts. This brutal penetration correlates with the decline of the use of traditional media, such as newspapers, TV or radio shows. In the first phase, our study explores how social media platforms are affecting the use of other media. We study both social media and traditional media usage in term of quantity (number of hours daily) and frequency of use (how often students resort to those platforms). Furthermore, we analyze how this use correlates with academic performance and school attitude. In the second phase of the research project, we analyze the correlation between media consumption habits and both their political inclinations and the assessment of the urgency of social and political issues. We try to establish a hierarchy or priorities, from climate change, to domestic or Islamic terrorism, to the minimum wage. Based on these priorities, we study how strongly the participants feel about the different issues. The study provides a map of the worries of our student population. Furthermore, we assess the degree of political polarization. Finally, we explore how the media usage, with particular focus on social networks, may correlate with political inclinations, level of partisanship and perceived urgency of issues.

Keywords:

Social Media, Political Polarization, Populism, Social Issues, Academic Performance, Media Contents.