Political Science

Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
Political Science
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1
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Essay 1
Mass media: One of the four main forms of political socialization
Political socialization refers to the long term process of gaining the idea of politics and
developing political values by the individuals in a society. As stated by Quintelier (2015),
political socialization represents a specific type of political learning of people in which they
develop attitudes, beliefs, values, behaviors and opinions which help them to become good and
responsible citizens in their respective countries. It is mostly a one-way process in which the
young individuals of any community gain knowledge and understanding of the political scenario
through the interactions with the older generation, media and peer groups. Thus, the four main
forms of political socialization are family, schools, peer groups and mass media (Bar-Tal,
Diamond & Nasie, 2017).
Mass media is one of the strongest medium of socialization in the modern world. The
range of media has evolved and widened in the past century as the wave of technological
revolution gave a massive boost to all the aspects of life and businesses. As stated by German
(2017), mass media is not only a significant source of political information, but also a significant
influencer on the political beliefs and values. Over the decades, the media outlets have increased
significantly and its nature also changed, from print media to digital media. Media has been
playing a very crucial role in developing the political knowledge and awareness as its capacity
has increased massively with increase in the number outlets and integration of new technologies,
which allows for more interactive media experience. Majority of political information is received
from media in different forms, newspapers, radio, television, magazines and internet.

2
POLITICAL SCIENCE
With the advent of television, mass media has become a very prominent and important
form of political socialization. The average level of television watching time is quite high among
all the societies across the countries in the world. The young generation is more engrossed in
watching media channels in isolation, than interacting with the other forms of socialization, that
is, family, school and peer groups (Kruikemeier & Shehata, 2017). The growth of these digital
media channels, especially the social media, and online news publications, has resulted in more
wide exposure of the young generation to the world politics and this has been beneficial for
developing their political knowledge, attitude and beliefs about not only their country’s political
scenario but also about the international political situations. The information and analyses of the
local and global political events are more easily accessible to people through the internet and
digital channels, which therefore has a more deep and widespread impact on the people in
developing their political socialization process (Ekström & Shehata, 2018).