MANUFACTURING CONCERN: THE POLITICAL CAPITAL OF ISSUES

J.C. Del Ama

About this paper:

Abstract:

This study explores the worries of our current college generation and how those concerns may relate to ideology and media consumption habits. Issues have been systematically instrumentalized by political actors and journalists in order to extract political capital from them. In this study, we focus on the contemporary political and social issues that most concern our current student generation. Based on the answers of our participants, students in the Connecticut public university system, we establish a hierarchy of worries, from climate change, to systemic racism, to immigration. The outcomes provide us with a clear picture of how the priorities of our target population are distributed. In the second phase of the study, we try to find correlations between the perceive urgency of the issues and the ideological background of the participants. Finally, we explore how our students are using legacy and new media to search for information about economy or politics at national and international level. In this regard, the penetration of social media proved to be brutal. Our students are turning newspapers, radio and TV away. Social media have become their most common source of information. In those platforms, they seem to find instrumental information that feeds worries associated to political and ideological causes.

Keywords:

Issue Relevance, Media Consumption, Instrumental Reporting, Social Media, Agenda Setting, Social Concerns.