With the election of 2016 receiving such a large amount of attention in the media, it is important to consider how this massive media network may be influencing the voters.
In the digital world we live in, content is king and the media controls or produces much of the content we are exposed to. Young-adults make up a large part of the population tapping into this digital world. Because of this, they are exposed to the media influence more than any other age group. According to a census published by the United States Census Bureau, young-adults also have the lowest voter participation in comparison to other age groups with a 38% voting rate in the election of 2012.
Voter participation as a whole has been declining over the past couple of elections. An article published by ABC 15 in Arizona just days following the election of 2012 states that “the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots in Tuesday’s election shows the rate was lower than in the past two presidential contests,” putting the participation percentage of eligible voters at 57.5%.
However, despite these low participation numbers among young people and the overall decline among eligible voters as a whole, voting is still important. The fact that only about half of eligible voters participated in the last election reveals a large grey area of citizens who, in turn, are not represented. Furthermore, young people are going to be heavily impacted by the policies and issues being discussed in the upcoming election and beyond, yet they are the citizens voting in the lowest numbers.
In order for our political system to work in its intended fashion, the citizens need to participate by casting votes built on educated beliefs and opinions. In order to develop educated views, our society needs to use accurate forms of media that convey reliable and informed content. A large portion of media is not in fact reliable. This leaves young people, who are most exposed to this content, with the daunting task of deciding what is useful, which can be intimidating.
An article published by MSNBC discusses some possible reasons as to why young people are not voting. After making it abundantly clear the impact young voters could have on the turnout of elections and policies, the article went on to say that advances in social issues such as LGBT rights are “overshadowed by ongoing partisan bickering and news coverage focused on the horse race of each election more than on the real issues that young people care about.”
The overabundance of content that young people are exposed to clouds the topics that could in fact draw them into voting. After speaking with some students here on campus, they seem to agree. One student stated, “Social media shows the snarky and undercutting side of politics but rarely addresses the issues at hand.”
Because of this overabundance, it is important that the society can sift through this information to decide what is reliable and what is not. This process is important when developing educated opinions on candidates and political issues, for example. Gabby D’Angelo, a student at Temple University, stated “[The media] glamorizes some candidates for the wrong reasons, [it] focuses on what will get the most attention, which then makes it easier to influence votes.”
Looking beyond the distracting aspects of media that “glamorize” or publicize and instead focusing on the reliable and accurate forms of media will help cultivate a more educated public capable of participating.
As the next generation to run this country, young people need to understand the importance of educating themselves about and getting involved in politics. Developing the ability to filter through this mass amount of content is crucial in the process of properly educating themselves to become valuable voters in elections.