The Role of the Media in the Process of Political Socialization: A Study on University Students

This study focuses on the role of the media in the process of political socialization. In this context, the relationship between the media and political socialization in the context of college students will be discussed. The study discusses the media in a way that includes both traditional and social media. In the study conducted with the quantitative method, the data were obtained using the questionnaire technique. In this regard, questionnaires were used on 675 college students who were selected as a sample through personal interviews. In the study, the scale developed by the researcher was used within the framework of the basic problem of the study. As a result of the reliability analysis conducted for the scale, the Cronbach's alpha value was determined to be 0.933. As a result of the factor analysis, the scale, which consists of 35 items, was summarized into 6 factors, and it was found that these factors explained 60.195% of the total variance. As a result of the other analyzes conducted in the study, a significant relationship was found between the media factor and both the following of political content and the political actions of the participants. Moreover, vis-a-vis individuals' politicalness, the most profound impact of the media was found to be one of reinforcement, rather than one of change, on the espoused political ideas.