Much is known about the relationship between millennials and civic participation. Much is known about the relationship between millennials and their consumption of political entertainment. But little is known about linking millennial political consumption and their civic engagement. This research explores the relationship between the two by conducting focus groups of seniors at Indiana University. Simplicity and convenience of this program entice millennials to consume it for entertainment purposes. However, through emotions of empathy and rage, respondents felt motivated to engage civically in whichever way they personally felt their voice was heard loudest.
Introduction
When this study mentions ‘millennials’, it is referring to anyone born between the years of 1981 and 1997. ‘Political entertainment’ captures the entertainment including network and cable news magazine shows, entertainment and tabloid news magazine shows, and day time and late-night talk shows that all discuss politics in either an entertaining or humorous manner. And finally, ‘civic engagement’ means working to make a difference in the civic life of one’s community in both political and non-political ways.
Millennials are engaging with civics in a new, arguably redefined way. This is because, as Zuckerman observed, millennials have an interest, or possibly a need, for “participants to see the impact of the issues they are trying to influence.” They do not see that impact with voting, as government seems ineffective to them. So while millennial voting rates are low, millennials are, according to Harvard, just as likely as prior generations to boycott and sign either an online or a paper petition. Additionally, millennial volunteer levels are much higher than that of their parents. Match all of this with an unprecedented millennial relationship with media and social media has become a driver in this new version of civics.
From the literature, Niemi, Craig, Mattei demonstrated that ‘internal political efficacy’ or a “belief in one’s own competence to understand and to participate effectively in politics” can “stimulate political participation.” Consumption of these political comedy-focused programs has, on one hand, left viewers with less trust in both the media and the electoral system. But Hoffman and Young found that said consumption has also been found to lead to increased perceived internal political efficacy, even if trust in the government is lower. The literature does not specify this relationship in the context of millennials though.
The question becomes: How does millennials’ unique relationship with political entertainment inform/affect their redefinitions of civic engagement?
Methods
Three focus groups of Indiana University seniors (born 1996/97) were conducted. The groups were divided by interest so as to observe responses based on increased experience with either civics or with comedy: one was comprised of participants involved in college comedy groups; one was comprised of public affairs majors; and one was a mixed group with various majors and interests. The study sought to test these hypotheses:
H1: Political entertainment improves the amount of efficacy respondents have (how much information participants feel as though they know about politics).
H2: The ability of political entertainment shows to cover topics relevant to millennials sparks efficacy in participants that will lead to them increasing their levels of civic engagement.
H3: The level of emotion participants feel as a result of viewing political entertainment influences the ways in which the subsequently engage civically.
Results
H1: Respondents felt as though they glean information from political entertainment when it delves into a topic of interest to respondents that traditional news media does not cover and when the way it communicates an issue is so humorous that the respondents are inclined to keep watching. The intention of consuming this programming is rarely to learn, because respondents feel inundated with information and news. This programming is, more than anything, comforting and does create a perceived community.
H2: Respondents noted the ability of these shows to emphasize topics that are more relevant to their values and interests, such as gender equality and student debt. This facet of political entertainment left respondents feeling more informed, and subsequently more likely to converse with their peers about the information, and more likely to seek civic engagement such a petitions or social media sharing that surrounded these topics.
H3: Emotion was a definite driver in civic engagement after consuming political entertainment. Empathy for one’s family and friends, or even for an ‘imagined community’ a consumer was exposed to led respondents to discuss donating money, starting petitions, and contacting representatives. Feelings of rage led respondents to discuss social media arguments and voting ineffective leaders out of office. In both cases, invoked emotion did drive subsequent civic engagement for respondents.
Conclusions/Implications
A primary conclusion from this research is that just because millennials are more connected than ever, they are no less self-interested than other generations are. This is both a fact of human nature and a fact of politics: people respond when something threatens them or those they care about. The way that respondents choose the way to engage civically as a result of these feelings is where they think their voice will be heard the loudest. For some, that means donating money. For others, that means sharing things on their Facebook feed.
However, engagement ruled by emotion among a group of people who are inundated with information, and rely on humor or catchy graphics to highlight for them what is important, explains the importance that political entertainment might play in the future. The millennial need for a way to sort through and pull out importance from all of the information they receive should not be underestimated. Future studies would benefit from taking samples of differing educational, racial, and socioeconomic background. Beyond the constraints of this study though, future research in this field could examine whether rage or empathy motivate civic actions more, or identify what types of civic engagement are the most convenient for millennials.
Bio
Carmen Carigan is a graduating senior at Indiana University. Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, Carigan majors in Law and Public Policy with certificates in Applied Research & Inquiry and Journalism. When she is not trying to marry her dual passions for mass communication and civics, Carmen is a member of a sketch comedy group, writes an opinion column for the Indiana Daily Student, and is trying and failing to become fluent in Spanish.
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