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ABSTRACT
Adolescents are considered especially vulnerable to extremists’ online activities because they are ‘always online’ and because they are still in the process of identity formation. However, so far, we know little about (a) how often adolescents encounter extremist content in different online media and (b) how well they are able to recognize extremist messages. In addition, we do not know (c) how individual-level factors derived from radicalization research and (d) media and civic literacy affect extremist encounters and recognition abilities. We address these questions based on a representative face-to-face survey among German adolescents (n = 1,061) and qualitative interviews using a think-aloud method (n = 68). Results show that a large proportion of adolescents encounter extremist messages frequently, but that many others have trouble even identifying extremist content. In addition, factors known from radicalization research (e.g., deprivation, discrimination, specific attitudes) as well as extremism-related media and civic literacy influence the frequency of extremist encounters and recognition abilities.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 This paper presents unpublished analyses of representative survey data (Study 1) that were first published in Reinemann et al. (Citation2019). In addition, the paper is based on considerably more participants in the qualitative interviews (Study 2) than the analyses in Reinemann et al. (Citation2019).
2 ‘Some of the statements and organizations that you just heard can be described as “extremist”. The term ‘extremism’ describes attitudes or activities which are directed against the ideas and values defined by the Basic German Law (Grundgesetz). They may, for example, oppose the idea of the freedom and equality of all human beings. Some extremist organizations also use or approve of violence as a means to achieve their goals. Did you understand what is meant by “extremism”?’
3 Reliability was assed based on Cronbach’s alpha. For newly developed scales we accepted values between .6 and .7.
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Notes on contributors
Angela Nienierza
Angela Nienierza is doctoral candidate at the Department of Media and Communication at LMU Munich and works at the Bavarian Center for Political Education. Her research interests lie in the area of political communication, ranging from public opinion to media use and media effects, with a focus on quantitative methods [email: [email protected]].
Carsten Reinemann
Carsten Reinemann is a professor of political communication at LMU Munich. His research interests include political journalism, election coverage, and campaign effects. Besides books and book chapters he has authored or co-authored articles in the Journal of Communication, Communication Research, European Journal of Communication, The International Journal of Press/Politics, Communications, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and Publizistik.
Nayla Fawzi
Nayla Fawzi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Media and Communication at LMU Munich. Her research focuses on trust in the media, the relation between populism and the media, online user behavior and adolescents’ media use.
Claudia Riesmeyer
Claudia Riesmeyer is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Media and Communication at LMU Munich. Her research focuses on media literacy, journalism and Public Relations, political communication and qualitative methods.
Katharina Neumann
Katharina Neumann is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Media and Communication at LMU Munich. Her research interests include media and radicalization, right-wing extremism and Islamism, propaganda and media effects.