Media in Political Sophistication Social Sciences Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Media and its Role in Political Sophistication
Abstract: This paper will study media and its role in political sophistication. The first part (I) of this paper will define and discuss political sophistication. After that, this paper will talk about political socialization (II) and in line with this; this paper will discuss the agents of socialization namely: family, religion, education, peers, mass media, and government and how these agents specially the media influence to different degrees an individual’s political opinions. The first two parts of this paper will serve as an introduction. After providing knowledge about political sophistication and political socialization, this paper will discuss (III) media in general and the theories of media effects in politics. The last (IV) part will be the conclusion of this paper.
Objectives:
a.) To provide knowledge about political sophistication and its relationship to media. b.) To understand the role of media in political sophistication and its implication to democracy.
I. Political Sophistication
Political sophistication according to Robert Luskin (1987) is the quantity and organization of a person’s political cognitions. He said that a person is politically sophisticated to the extent to which his or her political cognitions are numerous, cut a wide substantive swath, and are highly organized or constrained (Luskin, 1987). Eric Smith (1989), in agreement with the idea of Philip Converse stressed the principal characteristics for an individual to be politically sophisticated, First is (1) range of opinions which is the number of political issues upon which one holds opinions; second is (2) attitude consistency which is the extent to which one has consistent attitudes in agreement with some generally accepted patterns; third is (3)