Traditional and “New Media” Forms and Political Socialization

Media are an important pillar of political socialization, that is, the way a person learns about the function of democratic principles and institutions in their formative years and beyond. Changes in the social and media environment affect the way new citizens become politically socialized. With the emergence of social media, communication changed toward a socially networked, algorithmic, and highly personalized environment. This new, networked communication logic, in which information is shared, ubiquitously accessible, and aligned to personal interests, reshapes the mechanisms through which media use can impact political socialization outcomes. While cultivation of universal perceptions in the population through mass media becomes less likely, political role models, previously found mostly in mass media, can now be met in citizens' own online communities. In the background of this new logic, research has started to model socialization outcomes as a process, rather than treating them as simultaneous and equivalent results of media use, for example, by investigating how media effects on political participation are mediated through the development of citizenship norms. This entry sheds light on the interplay of networked media use and socialization outcomes and explains how a networked communication logic attenuates traditional patterns of political socialization.