Introduction: Political Information Efficacy and Young Voters

With young voters reporting lower levels of political knowledge and information than older voters, and with young citizens often attributing their abstention from voting to their lack of political knowledge, this study focuses on the role that specific campaign messages play in enhancing young voter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) 2007-05, Vol.50 (9), p.1093-1111
Main Authors: Kaid, Lynda Lee, McKinney, Mitchell S., Tedesco, John C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising
Behavioural sciences
Campaigns
Citizen participation
Citizens
College students
Communication
Data collection
Democracy
Effectiveness
Efficacy
Election results
Electoral behaviour
Electoral campaigning
Human behaviour
Information processing
Information Sources
Knowledge
Messages
Participation
Political advertising
Political campaigns
Political communication
Political information
Political science theories
Political theory
Politics
Presidential elections
Regression analysis
Socialization
Studies
Voter behavior
Voters
Voting
Voting Behavior
Voting behaviour
Young adults
Young people
Youth
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Summary:With young voters reporting lower levels of political knowledge and information than older voters, and with young citizens often attributing their abstention from voting to their lack of political knowledge, this study focuses on the role that specific campaign messages play in enhancing young voters' political information. We first advance a theory of political information efficacy, positing that different levels of information processing occur from different sources of political information. Our findings reveal that specific types of political messages affect young and older citizens' political information efficacy differently and that political information efficacy plays a significant role in voting or nonvoting for young citizens.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/0002764207300040