The technological advancement in the present age of media and the role of communication and social media outlets form a fundamental pillar for the participation of young adults in politics. This essay aims to analyze the restricting and enabling sides of the media context when it comes to political capacity for the youth. We bring together the agenda-setting and framing theories with an example of social media activism empowering youths and politically enabling them during Arab Spring; we argue that the current media landscape has constraints as it is selective in agenda-setting and setting the frames, but at the same time, it opens avenues for empowerment and mobilization among young people. Contemporary media, in its form of Arab Spring social media activism, influences political assertion through its power of convening and designing; at the same time, the media, in its current state, facilitates typical political emancipating and empowering actions among the youth.
Agenda-Setting Theory and Selective
Agenda-setting theory claims that not only does the media affect public perception, but what it does not portray determines public perception, too. Media in young adults’ political agencies are the media outlets that are prioritized in deciding what the young adults consider issues. Media outlets tend to be responsible for giving directions by covering only specific political actions rather than a few others (Arshad and Waheed, 2022). The main emphasis of the given sentence is to describe how mass media occasionally establishes agendas by concentrating on specific political actions or topics and leaving others behind. However, during the Arab Spring, traditional media played the instrumental role of social media platforms, emphasizing the significance of such platforms as general tools of political activism. These platforms were selective concerning the information they broadcast, thus offering a limited perspective on youth political involvement in popular media content. Social media, however, which was instrumental in organizing and energizing youth activists and the broader public, was overlooked in this context.
Also, selective exposure complicates media impact and young adults’ empowerment. Having a greater chance of emphasizing viewpoints and values, people would pick the most suitable information (Shepherd and Hamilton, 2016). As is the case, people end up in echo chambers where opposing views are regarded as nothing. When studying the Arab Spring protests from this selective exposure viewpoint, young people might have been influenced by the information they took, reinforcing their existing insights and limiting their ability to reflect upon the more open-minded and accepting reality (Arshad and Waheed, 2022). Consequently, the nature of the media environment, driven by exposure and agenda setting, not only defines the political agenda but also creates the conditions for the persistence of negative attitudes and opposition, thus limiting young people’s range of actions beyond “their chambers.”
Framing Theory and Media Representation
Frame theory argues that media outlets determine what is news and play a vital role in directing the public assessment of the issue based on how it is processed or which lens is used. Media framing in the domain of youth philosophy of political agency occupies a significant place as this becomes the basis for the public’s scrutinization and response to youth activism (Bice Maiguashca and Marchetti, 2013). News outlets frequently accentuate young people’s activism by using either/or approaches; they either heroicise it as revolutionary and forward or, on the other hand, demonize it as reckless or destructive. This articulation does not just change perceptions but also determines the tone and the concept that will guide political dialogue on youth engagements. The central role of traditional media was on display at the dawn of the Arab Spring when the media outlets presented youth activists as either principled revolutionaries or individual disruptions for which society had to bear; their actions thus shaped public perception both locally and globally (Bice Maiguashca and Marchetti, 2013). However, the launch of social media platforms changed all that by giving the younger generation of activists a new space to frame their narratives for the occasion of a global forum for their peers and the international community, leaving aside traditional media gatekeepers.
Through social media channels, young adults could discredit and examine forthright narratives and even authorize their affirmation in the general public field. Having people create content and using grassroots activism could render useless any mainstream media framing that undercut or misportrayed their ability to take political action (Bice Maiguashca and Marchetti, 2013). Media of social sorted things out by lifting barriers of direct communication and interaction among youth activists and allowing their voices to be heard worldwide and in any language. With that, youths assumed the opportunity to venture into defining the role of the government by demanding their voice in the political arena as young people playing much more significant roles than before (Dr. Christiane Timmerman et al., 2013). In the wake of this, they exceeded the established limits of the media framing by which the traditional media utilized, therefore revealing the transformative ingenuity of digital platforms in empowering the youth of the country to take control of their political fate.
Conceptual Connection
Intersectionality is a vital tool for seeing the elements of various social backgrounds, which creates a unique experience in the media featuring politics for today’s youth. This fact about Intersectionality helps us recognize that belongingness to specific social categories does not exist separately but in conjunction with each other. Thus, people are subjected to multiple kinds of discrimination and different experiences of dominant powers, depending on the identity they are either aware or unaware of (Christian Schroder, 2018). One of the main advantages intersectional research has when it comes to theories of media and political agency lies in its competence to illuminate how the constraints and opportunities of the media often take on various forms when referring to marginalized young adults. As an example, marginalized youths, including those from low-income brackets or ethnicities, are prone to experience additional barriers to political participation, such as the need to access digital platforms and media systems that have biases toward them.
For this reason, an intersectional lens approach makes it possible to see all the multi-identities merge with the media dynamics and consider their impact on young adults’ political agency. Among the youth, in particular, the underprivileged ones who may be subjected to socioeconomic disparities could come to face difficulties in navigating and utilizing such internet sites because of various reasons such as lacking access to the internet or lack of knowledge on how to use technological devices (Christian Schroder, 2018). Besides, stereotypes and marginalizing some identity groups mostly bring about the political agency of young adults, which is from those groups being undermined. One case that is to be observed is how the media treats minorities on both the positive and the opposing sides. The experience of youths as minorities may then reinforce or neglect their perspectives, which limits their capacity to participate in political discourse in a total capacity. Today’s youth deal with intersecting dimensions of life, in which the media plays a critical role, and thus, it is imperative for it to be inclusive and equitable; hence, it should highlight and amplify the voices of the young people. In addition, marginalized segments of the society should be included.
Access to Information and Digital Divides
The force behind political agency comes from having information, and yet profound technological gaps mainly affect the young and under-represented. The concept of Intersectionality illuminates how each factor, like race, class, and geography, converge to increase these differences. Those who are out of the majority, like people who are located in rural regions or poor districts, tend to get excluded from the online platforms because they need access to high-internet speed or some technology like tablets, So they can’t participate in online campaigns (Christian Schroder, 2018). In addition, internet connectivity and device costs may pose an economic problem for young people from families with insufficient income to support the expenses. As a result, the definitions lead to the digital divide and prohibit teenagers from marginalized groups from getting vital political information and opportunities to participate, which is, in turn, a confining factor for their political agency in the contemporary media landscape.
Actions aimed at bridging digital divides should consider the role of dialogical factors in these gaps. A wide range of measures, including those for raising infrastructure and offering subsidized Internet access for disadvantaged groups, would reduce the problems related to geography and the economy in digital inclusion. Further, programs that deliver digital literacy training and allow device affordability can ensure that marginalized young adult stakeholders get the way quickly (Cohen, 2008). These intersecting inequalities need to be targeted through ending economic injustice, which is one of the components as well because this creates a more just media environment that gives all youth possibilities to share in the information pool while also being able to join in the political discourse which increases their political agency thus their voices are more instrumental in the public arena.
Conclusion
Finally, the 21st-century media world brings both a lack of constraints and new opportunities for young people’s politics. Technically, in the ages of agenda-setting and framing theories, we have analyzed the role of the media in the perception of youth mobilization and its influence on the policy dialogue. Despite these limits, the example of the Arab Spring shows how social media networks can be the platforms that promote political means of empowerment and mobilization among young people. By evaluating theories and practical cases, we can understand more deeply the political agency of the current digital age and take the step to realize the participation of young people in the media environment.
Reference list
Arshad, F. and Waheed, I. (2022). Political Science in the Cultural Compendium: Navigating the Dynamics of Power, Governance, and Political Thought. Social Sciences Spectrum, [online] 1(2), pp.11–19. Available at: https://sss.org.pk/index.php/sss/article/view/7 [Accessed 19 Mar. 2024].
Bice Maiguashca and Marchetti, R. (2013). Contemporary Political Agency. Routledge.
Christian Schroder, K. (2018). Mediated Communication. De Gruyter. Doi:https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110481129.
Cohen, N.S. (2008). The Valorization of Surveillance: Towards a Political Economy of Facebook. Democratic Communiqué, 22(1), pp.5–5.
Dr Christiane Timmerman, Ms Sara Mels, Professor Peter Thijssen and Professor Walter Weyns (2013). New Public Spheres. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Shepherd, L.J. and Hamilton, C. (2016). Understanding Popular Culture and World Politics in the Digital Age. Routledge.
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