Politics Trumps Pop Culture

If naming a U.S. senator is no sweat, but you draw a blank on last season's winner of "American Idol," you are not alone. Two-thirds of the college students surveyed in a recent Tufts University study could name a current senator, but only 15 percent were familiar with 2006 Idol winner Taylor Hicks.

The study surveyed 500 college students aged 18-24 and 500 non-students of comparable age. The results showed that, in addition to knowing more about politics than pop culture, college students are twice as likely as their non-student peers to be involved in community activities, spend more time reading and watching the news, and are more likely to have political discussions with family and friends.

"Students care more about politics than pop culture," a University of Virginia review of the survey declared.

The study's findings imply that students are, in fact, quite knowledgeable and interested in the political world, despite the image that the media often portrays.

Political science professors and student activists at the University said they thought Stanford students would have fared well on the Tufts survey.

"I agree that there is political consciousness on some college and university campuses, with Stanford being probably among the most politically active," said Political Science Prof. Larry Diamond, who is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. "I think Stanford students would score highly on political awareness."

However, Diamond also said that, while students on campus are informed about politics, they are also knowledgeable about pop culture.

"That does not necessarily mean they are geeks on pop cultural awareness," he said. "Compare them to Stanford professors, for example."

Political Science Prof. Rob Reich said he was worried that students might confuse civic responsibilities with political ones.

"In my experience, Stanford students score off the charts on civic engagement," he said, "but I fear that they may view it as a substitute for political engagement."

Stanford Democrats president Bobby Lepore ‘07 had a different opinion, saying he thought that most students have at least a minimal level of political awareness.

"I think even the students who might pay more attention to pop culture than to the nitty gritty details of what's going on in Washington realize fundamentally that politics matter more than the latest celebrity gossip," he said.

"Despite the fact that I like and agree with the findings," he added, "I think the methodology is sort of silly. I'm much more interested to see how many students vote, how many have a sense for what's at stake in the fight over stem cell research or gay rights or poverty."

Despite his qualms about the survey, Lepore said he thought the results would prove that the younger generation is more politically active than often believed.

"I do remember reading about a study very recently that said that people who watch ‘The Daily Show' and ‘The Colbert Report' are more informed about current events than watchers or listeners of just about any other news source, save NPR," he said. "I think that probably provides some more good evidence that students in general are more informed than older people might give us credit for."

Republished with permission by The Stanford Daily.