ABSTRACT
One of the most consistent findings in political science is that the American public possesses very little political information. Classics such as Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee’s (1954) Voting and Campbell, Converse, Miller, and Stokes’s (1960) The American Voter illustrated citizens’ lack of knowledge and information, even during highly salient events such as election campaigns. Others have come to the same conclusion in more recent work (Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996; Price & Zaller, 1993). Moreover, even the most recent studies of citizens’ knowledge of politics and government illustrate that the public does not have a great wealth of knowledge and has roughly the same levels as Americans two decades ago (Pew Research Center, 2007). There are great divides in political knowledge among the American people. While some (those who are older, white, more educated, and wealthy) are better informed; others lack even the most basic information. Young Americans are an important category of the least informed; they are also less likely to vote and engage in other campaign activities, and are more disconnected from the political system than others (Bauerlein, 2008; Wattenberg, 2007).
