What’s your source? Estimating the effects of media on youth political engagement in Southeast Europe

ABSTRACT

Sustainable democracy in Southeast Europe is closely tied to the level of political engagement among young people aged 14–29. In this study, we examine how different media outlets influence political participation and interest among this population. We employ survey data collected from 10 Southeast European countries to explore this relationship. Our research shows that, except for television viewing, all information sources positively impact young people’s interest in politics and inclination to participate. Digital media exerts the strongest influence, while political discussions also prove to be significant. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the effect of media sources on political engagement is more pronounced among older respondents, suggesting an age-related moderation within this population. We also observe that the quality of national media sectors, including their commitment to safeguarding freedom of expression and competitiveness, does not significantly influence the relationship between media and political involvement. We conclude that media plays a crucial role in fostering political engagement among youths in Southeast Europe.

KEYWORDS:

• Political engagement
• media
• political interest
• youth
• Southeast Europe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2024.2366081

Notes

1. Data were collected as part of the ‘Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Youth Studies in South East Europe, 2018–2019’ Project. See: https://www.fes.de/en/youth-studies.

2. Appendix A includes the questionnaire wording and coding for each measure used in the analysis.

3. Appendix B shows the results from SEM with our seven information sources on the individual political acts controlling for latent political participation and SES variables.

4. Our data show moderate non-normality. Given the large sample size, the tests of normality typically will be significant. At the same time, the literature suggests that ML estimation is relatively robust in the face of moderate non-normality when large sample sizes are present (Lei and Lomax 2005; Ory and Mokhtarian 2010).

5. See Freedom House Media Freedom 2018 report (https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/scores)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabriel Bădescu

Gabriel Bădescu is a professor of political science and the director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at Babes-Bolyai University, Romania. He held a Fulbright Research Fellowship, an International Fellowship of Open Society Institute, and a UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report fellowship. His research interests include democratic transitions, civil society, education policies, inequalities and research methodology. He was the president of the Romanian Agency for Governmental Strategies (2009-2010), a member of the Romanian National Council of Higher Education Statistics and Forecast (2016-2018) and is currently a member of the Romanian National Research Council.

Paul E. Sum

Paul E. Sum is a professor of political science at the University of North Dakota where he teaches courses in Comparative Politics, Democratization, Human Rights, and Political Behavior. Sum’s research agenda explores various aspects of political behavior, including cooperation, civil society, inequalities, and democratic citizenship. Sum held the position of Lecturer and Fellow at the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (1996-1998) under a program funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In 2009-2010, Sum was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award to Romania where he lectured and conducted research. He has worked as an evaluator and consultant for many organizations including the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank, Council of Europe, OSCE, and National Democratic Institute.