Media self-efficacy and internal political efficacy as processes underlying young adults’ political participation Medien- und politikbezogene Selbstwirksamkeit als Wegbereiter politischer Partizipation

Abstract

Young people’s political participation is essential for an effective democracy and sustainable society. Particularly news exposure has been demonstrated to leverage political participation. However, it is suggested with this paper that not only news exposure fosters young adult’s participation, but also their perception of how effective they are while gathe-ring information with the media (media self-efficacy); and that this perception of media efficacy pays into people’s belief of how well they handle the challenges of being an active citizen (internal political efficacy). Based on Bandura’s self-efficacy theory (1977), media self-efficacy and internal political efficacy are suggested as underlying processes linking news exposure on the one hand and political participation on the other. This interplay was confirmed for online news exposure and participation, but not for television news exposure and participation. It is suspected that particularly the interactive nature of online news provides possibilities to participate and thus facilitates the development of media self-efficacy and internal political efficacy as foundations for political participation.