Young voters: What they know

CHAPEL HILL -- Oh, how common are lamentations about young Americans' lack of political knowledge. Young people in this country, we often hear, are abysmally uninformed and would rather punch messages on i-Phones, listen to MP3s or hit bunker shots on a Wii than consume political news.

Some evidence suggests this is true. A 2007 study from the Pew Research Center titled "What Americans Know: 1989-2007" found that young people were less likely than older Americans to answer a host of political questions correctly, such as "Who is the president of Russia?" and "Which party has control of the U.S. House of Representatives?"

Evidence such as this leads many journalism scholars, such as David Mindich, author of "Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News," to repine the amount of news young people take in and how little they know about current events.

Critics are concerned about what an uninformed citizenry means for democracy. It spells catastrophe, argues Mindich, who says "America is facing the greatest exodus of informed citizenship in its history."

But is it? Are young Americans permanently withdrawing from a state of political awareness? Are the apocalyptic predictions likely to come to pass?

Doubtful. Young Americans are actually quite informed about issues that matter to them.

Ask a 21-year-old about Social Security guidelines, trade deficits or wheat futures, and you might well get a blank stare. Ask the same young person, however, about global climate change, net neutrality or the rising cost of a college education, and you might endure quite an earful.

Similarly, were you to ask an American over 65 for a cogent statement about Internet privacy, you'd probably end up going back to the 21-year-old.

I'm teaching a journalism course at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the instruction is reciprocal; I teach my students about things such as news coverage of politics and media ownership patterns, and they in turn teach me (I'm all of 27) about how the struggling economy affects undergraduates these days and the ways in which news organizations reach consumers through text messages and MySpace pages.

ONE OF DEMOCRACY'S JOYS IS THE RIGHT TO DEFINE WHAT ISSUES ARE IMPORTANT, to specify the issues for which you'll stand. "Political knowledge" means many different things, and no one has the right to determine what factual knowledge democratic participants must have.

Knowing who is the president of Russia or which party controls the House isn't a prerequisite of political participation. Many young people aren't interested in Russia, or in the bipolar nature of our two-party system.

Some scholars are rethinking the notion of the informed citizen. "Citizens in a democracy do need to be well informed," writes political scientist Doris Graber. "But they also should enjoy the right to freely choose the information that best suits their needs and tastes."

Yes. Young people should, and do, define which issues are important to them, and these issues don't necessarily involve prescription drug benefits or municipal bond referendums.

DURING THE CONGRESSIONAL MIDTERM ELECTIONS OF 2006, AARP launched a subversive ad campaign called "Don't vote." In one TV commercial, a series of actors -- many of them too young to belong to AARP -- appear on the screen, all telling viewers, "Don't vote."

An actor eventually tells viewers, "Don't vote, until you know where the candidates stand on the issues."

Ultimately good advice, but AARP's implicit message is that young people, and others, aren't qualified to vote, because they don't know enough about issues important to the AARP.

Young Americans don't have to be experts on the AARP's core issues, such as retirement savings, Social Security and health-care plans, for democracy to survive.

Do not despair. Waves of youthful ignorance aren't going to wash down the democratic lighthouse. Quite the opposite. As young people choose what issues are important to them in the information age, we're seeing democracy become more precise, for citizens can easily acquire knowledge of issues they care about and specify the reasons they want to be part of democracy.

(Justin Martin is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill.)