Political Socialization The survival of a society requires that new members be taught the basic social patterns and values of that system. The socialization process usually involves the young person's learning of appropriate orientations through such formal and informal agencies as the school and family. Political socialization is a developmental process by which children and adolescents acquire cognitions, attitudes and behaviors relating to their political environment (Hyman, 1959; Langton, 1969; Hess and Torney, 1967). Several societal agents have been identified as key transmitters of political orientations from generation to generation: parents, schools, peers, and the mass media. Political socialization is one of the newest and most active areas of social science research. Herbert Hyman provided the main impetus for this developing field with his 1959 book that empirically examined how children learn patterns of political participation, party identification, ideology, and authoritarianism. Later researchers have studied the roots of political efficacy, interest, trust, knowledge, information-seeking, and electoral behavior. Most scholars agree that political orientations acquired in childhood have important implications for adult behavior (Cook and Scioli, 1972). Research shows that the socialization process typically begins with abstract emotional attachments and identification with political figures and institutions in the elementary school years. These vague affective allegiances are supplemented with specific knowledge during adolescence, when the child develops a more rational understanding of his political world 2 3 (Greenstein, 1965a). Some researchers argue that political socialization is really a continuous life-long process, with adult political experiences constantly reshaping previously learned orientations (Brim and Wheeler, 1966; Prewitt, Eulau and Zisk, 1966-67). Nevertheless, the primary emphasis in the field has been on pre-adult stages of learning. Political scientists have proposed a number of frameworks for conceptualizing this process. Easton and Hess (1962) approached political socialization from a systems theory perspective. Their parsimonious input-output conversion model posits various demands and supports as the primary inputs to the political system. One important means of support is the continuous socialization of incoming participants to the political process. A similar macro-level emphasis has been used by scholars working from Parsons' structural-functional theory (Mitchell, 1962; Almond and Verba, 1963). This perspective holds that a key element in societal pattern maintenance is conformity to prescriptions of the cultural system. Therefore, youth must be inculcated with a desire to fulfill role expectations of society concerning normative political behavior. Langton (1969) points out that the socialization process occasionally may serve as a vehicle for system change rather than invariably maintaining traditional norms and values. Most political scientists have taken the individual as the primary unit of analysis in an attempt to explain the child's acquisition of political cognitions, attitudes and behaviors. Greenstein (1965b) has provided the most useful micro-level scheme in his rephrasing of Lasswell's basic question: Who learns what from whom under what circumstances with what effects? The current research literature has generally focused on several agents influencing certain cognitive, affective and behavioral dependent variables for various subgroups of pre-adults. Family: Early political socialization research focused narrowly on the family as the major agent of political learning. Researchers studying dimensions of "national character" discovered that dominant psychological patterns of early family training within societies were associated with subsequent styles of political behavior during adulthood (Mead, 1951). The family environment appears to play an important role in the development of certain political variables such as party identification, knowledge, participation, and efficacy (Hyman, 1959; Greenstein, 1965b; Dawson, 1966; Chaffee, McLeod and Wackman, 1973). Nevertheless, recent scholars have presented evidence which indicates that the potency of parental influence is overrated, particularly regarding the transmission of partisan attitudes and opinions across generations (Jennings and Neimi, 1968; Hess and Torney, 1967; Connell, 1972). While the family impact can be pervasive early in life, this influence is so temporally removed from adult political behavior that such initial experiences may be irrelevant or their effects may dissipate over time. School: The second major agent of socialization examined in the research literature has been the school. According to Hess and Torney (1967), the elementary school plays a crucial role in teaching conceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about the operation of the political system: "The school stands out as the central, salient, and dominant force in the political socialization of the young child." This conclusion may not be applicable to older students, however. Langton (1969) reports compelling evidence that formal 'civics' training in the secondary school has a minimal impact on most socialization indices. Since the present study deals with political learning at the high school level, the role of the civics course will be explored in greater detail below. 5 Other Socialization Agencies: Peers, work groups, political parties, labor unions, and religious institutions seem to have little influence over the individual's basic socialization into a political system. The peer group influence is probably the most significant among these sub-agents, as indicated by the long-term attitude changes found among Bennington College women who identified with a liberal reference group in the college community (Newcomb, 1963). Until the 1970's, most researchers did not consider the mass media as a potential agent of political socialization. Chaffee, Ward and Tipton (1970) cluded mass media variables actually treated exposure to political content as a dependent index of socialization rather than a causal agent contributing to the political learning process. speculate that the basis for ignoring the media role was the classic research evidence which showed that mass communication had limited effects on adult voting behavior. They argue that it is inappropriate to apply these principles to pre-adult socialization, where a young person is forming rather than de fending political predispositions. Recent investigations indicate that the mass media may have an important impact on many socialization criteria. Before examining these studies, research on the amount of exposure to media public affairs messages will be examined. It first must be established that children and adolescents do come in regular contact with those mass media sources which describe and evaluate the political environment. Exposure to Mass Media Political Content The young child's first experience with mass media political information typically occurs in elementary school when he begins viewing national 6 news programs. In a survey of 700 Michigan school children, Atkin and Gantz (1974) found that 24% of the kindergarten and first grade students reported watching the network newscasts "almost every day" and 29% watched "sometimes." The proportions steadily increase throughout grade school, with almost three-fourths of the fifth graders seeing these newscasts at least sometimes. Local news programming is viewed by a similar proportion of grade school students. The Saturday morning mini-newscasts specially designed for the child audience have also gained many viewers since being introduced in 1971. In the Atkin study, one-third of the younger children and more than half of the older elementary students watched the CBS "In the News" broadcasts on a regular basis. They found that boys viewed substantially more news programming than girls, although black and white children did not differ in exposure. No differences were discovered between students who performed well in school and those who received fair or poor grades. McLeod, Atkin and Chaffee (1972) studied the exposure patterns of almost 500 seventh and tenth graders in Maryland schools. Their data showed that 69% of these students watched national news broadcasts at least sometimes, and 60% of them sometimes viewed such current events programs as "Sixty Minutes." Only 22% watched interview shows like "Meet the Press." Males viewed somewhat more than females, and exposure increased slightly with age. These students frequently listened to radio newscasts, with 40% hearing one or two per day and 43% listening to three or more. McIntyre and Teevan (1972) found that half of their Maryland senior high school sample watched television news at least two or three times per week. Males viewed more than females, and blacks saw more news than whites. There were no social class differences detected in this sample. |