Political socialization in meme times: Adolescents and the sources of knowledge concerning politics

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Notes

1 Another dynamic group of agencies that contribute to the acquisition of knowledge are religious institutions, the military, workplaces, correctional centers, entertainment establishments, interest groups, political organizations, social clubs, sports clubs and online communities. The latter seem to be extremely important from the point of view of discussions on the contemporary role of the media in the process of the political socialization of young people.

2 The study examined not only the sources of knowledge, but also the level of knowledge in the area of the political system and current knowledge on politics.

3 The questions inquired about the interest of young people in politics and their self-assessment concerning their knowledge of politics. Additionally, the test questions examined students’ knowledge of politics, the intensity of emotions aroused by politicians and political preferences. The questionnaire was a part of a larger project, which is why some results have been exploited in other articles (e.g., Kaniewska-Sęba & Pawełczyk, 2020).

4 Links as the forms presenting political content are used more by non-believers (0.599; undecided: 0.496; believers: 0.442, for p = .008). The same is true for memes (non-believers: 0.847; undecided: 0.797; believers: 0.732; p = .025). Men tend to use films as the form of presentation more often (0.32; women: 0.191, p = 0) and satirical cartoons (0.337; women: 0.243; p = .003).

5 The context of research carried out among respondents from Poland is worth noting. The results confirm the fairly widespread belief of media researchers that, despite significant changes in media use in the last dozen or so years, compared to other European countries, Poland remains a relatively “TV-dependent” country with a relatively high percentage of people watching TV and a relatively long time spent with this medium every day. In this respect, Poland is the 6th most TV-watching country in the European Union, with 259 min spent on average watching TV daily (see Statista, 2020).

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Jakub Jakubowski

Jakub Jakubowski is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. He specializes in issues related to social communication, with particular emphasis on social media and politics. In addition to academic and didactic activity, he is also a successful practitioner in the field of promotion as a co-creator of the ProScholars platform, a project to promote academic achievements online.