Does Television Matter in Political Participation?

Politically engaged citizenry is often considered a symbol of a healthy democracy. Political engagement, disengagement, apathy, cynicism etc are hotly debated in the context of general assumption that in many nations around the globe, the number of citizens who disengaged from politics is increasing day-by-day. Therefore, it is relevant to address the queries following: What are the factors affecting political participation? Are there any phenomena that induce people for political disengagement? To what extent, mass media influence political participation? These are the general questions probed in political participation research for the last several decades. This paper explores the extent and scope of such research on how television, in particular, affects several facets of political participation.

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