Political Socialization of International Students: Public-Issue Discourse and Discussion on the College Campus

ABSTRACT

This study examined international students’ interests in public issues in the U.S. and motivational factors behind their discourse or avoidance of such issues. In-depth interviews with international students revealed that they discuss certain public issues in the U.S. to gain or exchange information and knowledge, because these issues are relevant to themselves and others, or due to the misconceptions that others have about their country. Moreover, international students tend to avoid certain public issues because of the level of their knowledge and lack of interest in such issues and in order to avoid dissonance caused by the public issues.

KEYWORDS:

• Political discourse
• political socialization
• public issues
• international students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The topics of public issues were generated from Johnson et al. (2011) and some issues that are discussed often in the U. S. The following is the finalized list of the topics: immigration law, gun control, racism/ethnic discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, health care, abortion, drug legalization, death penalty, religion, sex discrimination, environment, animal abuse, animal experimentation, military spending, surrogate mothering, war, and terrorism.

2. We should note that some topics, like immigration law and religion, appear in both lists of topics commonly discussed and topics avoided because many participants saw these topics arise quite a bit whereas many other participants noted that they tried to avoid them.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mizuki H. Wyant

Mizuki H. Wyant (M.A., Ball State University, 2015) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. Her research interests include the intersection of intercultural and organizational communication. [email protected]

Elizabeth H. Hurst

Elizabeth H. Hurst (M.S., University of Tennessee, 2016) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. Her research interests include the intersection between political and intercultural communication, with special interest in social and communal identity research.

Justin Reedy

Justin Reedy (Ph.D., University of Washington, 2013) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and a research associate in the Center for Risk & Crisis Management at the University of Oklahoma. His research interests include political communication and deliberation, mass and digital media, and risk and environmental communication.