Socialization In Political Culture

Political socialization is the process by which people formed their ideas about politics. It's the lifelong development of a person's political values. There are two types of political socialization primary and secondary. Though most political socialization occurs during childhood, people continue to shape their political values throughout their lives (Dugger n.d). This basically means that political socialization is the process by which political culture is developed and maintained. It is what is taught to the people through their interactions with one another, through the media and through observation. As such Political Culture can be defined as the attitudes, feelings, ideas and values that people have about politics, government, and

These range from the school, church and media. As early as the 1930s, political scientist Charles Merriam observed that radio and film had tremendous power to educate: “Millions of persons are reached daily through these agencies, and are profoundly influenced by the material and interpretations presented in impressive form, incessantly, and in moments when they are open to suggestion.” The capacity of mass media to socialize people to politics has grown massively as the number of media outlets has increased and as new technologies allow for more interactive media experiences. Most people’s political experiences occur vicariously through the media because they do not have personal access to government or politicians. The use of more personalized forms of media, such as text messaging and participation in social networking sites, has expanded exponentially in recent years. Young people using these forms of media have greater control over their own political socialization: they can choose to follow politics through a Facebook group that consists largely of close friends and associates with similar viewpoints, or they may decide to avoid political material altogether. (Paletz, Owen and Cook as cited in Schmitz 2012). According to Forbes (2012) during the 2007 the national elections the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was held in awe for its forward-thinking and what then seemed quite novel use of social media. The

Accordingly, people knowingly adopt a certain status and position in the political structure of the society; a process which is completed by the family, school, mass media, government, political societies, parties, state organizations, local agencies, occupations, etc. (Ulzurrun, 2002 as cited in Essays UK 2013).As Almond and Verba view it, political socialization is the process of maintaining or changing political cultures. Through political socialization people enter political culture and their orientations toward political objectives are formed (Almond & Verba, 1963 as cited in Essays UK 2013). It must be noted that though Political Culture and Political Socialization may have different terms however, both are dependent on each other in understanding why people have similar beliefs and attitudes when it comes on to politics. How individuals learn about their government and their role in that government, which in other words forming a political culture is achieved through socialization with the aid of its agents such as the family or