Television and Political Awareness: Measuring the Impact of Political Talk Shows on Political Participation of Students of Lahore

This study explores the impact of television political talk shows on political awareness and political participation of the students of Lahore, Pakistan. For this quantitative research data was collected through a cross sectional survey using the instrument of questionnaire from 12 private and four public sector universities (n=400) through multistage sampling technique. The study measured the relationship between students' level of TV political talk shows viewing and their political knowledge, political awareness and political participation. The statistical tests of regression analysis and mediation were performed using process in SPSS. While testing the hypothesis, it was confirmed that greater exposure to TV talk shows lead to enhanced political knowledge, political awareness and political participation. The study also found that a mediation of political awareness exists between political participation and watching political talk shows