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Ph.D. thesis, Canterbury Christ Church University. Contact: [email protected] Evaluating the role of media in fostering political engagement among young people in the UK: A comparative analysis of social and legacy media coverage of political events and contribution to feelings of political empowerment by Patrick Readshaw Canterbury Christ Church University Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to acknowledge the contribution of Prof. Ágnes Gulyas to this work through her continuous support throughout this PhD. Her patience motivation and guidance has ensured that this PhD. work was completed on time. Besides Prof. Ágnes Gulyas I would like to thank the rest of my supervisory team Dr Dennis Nigbur and Prof. Shane Blackman, as their advice and support has been invaluable. I would also like to thank my friends and family who have been there throughout the entirety of this project, in particular my wife Laura whose support outside of academia has kept me grounded. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude towards Canterbury Christ University for the scholarship that allowed me to undertake this PhD. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1: Research context and researcher positionality ................................................................................... 1 1.2: A blueprint for analysis: thesis aims and research questions.............................................................. 6 1.3: Outlining the methodology ...............................................................................................................11 1.4: Setting the bounds: Structure and organisation of the thesis ...........................................................12 Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................................................14 2.1: Discussing political engagement: Key concepts and their relations ..................................................14 2.2: Contextualising political engagement: Youth involvement and social media uptake .......................22 2.3: The commodification of the political .................................................................................................26 2.4: Media diversity, social realities and culture transmission .................................................................33 2.5: Assessing the emancipatory potential of social media .....................................................................43 2.6: Reconciling the literature with researcher positionality ...................................................................47 Chapter 3: Methodology ...............................................................................................................................49 3.1: A three-tiered design: Methodological overview ..............................................................................49 3.2: Laying the groundwork: An exploratory and computer-mediated content analysis ........................54 3.3: Understanding youth engagement: Using IPA interviews .................................................................58 3.3a: Philosophical underpinnings ........................................................................................................60 3.3b: Justification and alternatives to IPA ............................................................................................63 3.4: Quantifying social media uptake and political engagement: A self-report questionnaire ................65 Chapter 4: An exploration of four cases of political coverage as distributed by British broadsheet newspapers ...................................................................................................................................................74 4.1: Legacy media coverage of four political events: Justifying case selection ........................................74 4.2: Exploring legacy media coverage: The process of sampling and analysing selected articles ............75 4.3: Scottish Referendum 2014 ................................................................................................................77 4.4: British General Election 2015 ............................................................................................................82 4.5: Occupy: Parliament Square 2014 ......................................................................................................86 4.6: Anti-Fracking campaign 2014-2015 ...................................................................................................90 4.7: Bringing the cases together: Building a typological map of legacy media coverage .........................94 Chapter 5: Exploring Twitter and legacy media coverage of two political events .......................................97 5.1: Outlining the role of social and legacy media in the coverage of political events ............................97 5.2: Mixed method approaches to sampling: Defining the process of analysis .......................................99 5.3: Computer-mediated analysis of the coverage of the General Election 2015 .................................101 5.4: Computer-mediated analysis of the coverage of the Occupy: Parliament Square 2014 ................109 5.5: Discussing the Twitter and legacy media coverage of political events ...........................................116 Chapter 6: Exploring youth attitudes and feelings toward politics and their involvement with both social and legacy media ........................................................................................................................................122 6.1: Contextualising the approach and importance of IPA .....................................................................122 6.2: Introducing the participants: Sample selection and process of analysis .........................................125 6.3: Developing the themes: Unpacking the results of analysis .............................................................129 6.3a: “The digital native vs. the digital immigrant” ............................................................................130 6.3b: “Solidarity online, alienation offline” ........................................................................................138 6.3c: “Legacy media as a method of government” ............................................................................146 6.3d: “Redefining the political dialogue?” ..........................................................................................154 6.4: Returning to the literature: Discussing the testimonies ..................................................................161 Chapter 7: Quantifying young people’s use of and attitudes towards social and legacy media ...............170 7.1: Discussing changes to young people’s media use and the impact this may have on politics ........170 7.2: Constructing and disseminating the questionnaire: Defining sample selection .............................174 7.3: Methods of analysis and statistical results ......................................................................................177 7.4: Elaborating on the statistics: a discussion of the results .................................................................186 Chapter 8: Discussing the impact of media on youth political engagement ..............................................194 8.1: The mixed methods approach: Consolidating the findings .............................................................194 8.1a: How do legacy and social media differ in their coverage of political events? ..........................197 8.1b: How is the use of legacy and social media linked to political engagement in the lived experience of media users? ................................................................................................................202 8.1c: Is there a measurable association between legacy and social media use, political efficacy, self- efficacy and self-esteem? ...................................................................................................................207 8.2: Evaluating the methods: strengths and limitations .........................................................................209 8.3: Reflecting on the process: Potential for future work and concluding remarks ...............................212 References