Towards Engaged Citizens: Influences of Second Screening on College Students’ Political Knowledge and Participation

ABSTRACT

Commonly conducted alongside political TV viewing, second screening is a new media use behavior that merits explorations at diverse levels. But the research on second screening is still in its infancy. To deeply understand the complicated mechanism of second screening and its influence in a political milieu, this study focuses on the second screening activities aroused by televised political campaign news and programs, and (1) identifies specific categories of second screening activities during television campaign exposure, and (2) establishes the indirect influences of each type of second screening activity on individuals’ cognition (political knowledge) and behavior (political participation) through internal (internal political efficacy) and external (political discussion) factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Second screening
• internal political efficacy
• political discussion
• political knowledge
• political participation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Political knowledge questions are as follows: (1) whose responsibility is it to determine if a law is constitutional or not?;(2) how much of a majority vote in both the house of representatives and in the senate is required for the US senate and house to override a presidential veto?; (3) who is the prime minister of Canada?; (4) would you say that one of the parties is more conservative than the other at the national level? which party is more conservative?; (5) in august 2016, the republican presidential nominee donald trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned from the camp. what is the main reason for his resignation?; (6) which candidate agrees with the national security agency’s policy to continue to collect phone and e-mail metadata on uUS citizens?; (7) which party has a plan to create millions of jobs by transitioning to 100% clean renewable energy by 2030, and investing in public transit and sustainable agriculture?; (8) who is the vice presidential candidate for Republican Party?; (9) who is the vice presidential candidate for Democratic Party?; (10) to prevent gun violence, some presidential candidates argue that schools should be gun-free zones. does hillary clinton favor or oppose the statement that parents, teachers, and schools should have the right to keep guns out of classrooms?; (11) the patient protection and affordable care act (PPACA), commonly called the affordable care act (ACA), is a United States federal statute enacted on march 23, 2010. which one of the 2016 presidential election candidates support PPACA?; (12) which candidate(s) argue that the United States should not allow syrian refugees into the country?