News consumption and political participation among young people. Evidence from a panel study

Research has shown that the internet is an important agent of mobilization that spurs young people into political action. We examine the effect of following the news online and watching television news on political participation. We hypothesize that the internet is more effective in stimulating young people to engage, and that the internet is most likely to affect the higher educated. We test our hypothesis using a two-wave panel survey among young people. The results show that the internet is by no means more effective than television. Furthermore, the internet is not more likely to spur higher educated into political activism than lower educated. Finally, analyses on the panel data show that young people become more politically active through their prior engagement and current level of attentiveness to the news, not through their past media use habits.status: publishe