Students Participate in Nationwide Survey Regarding Media & the Election

December 9, 2016

Bradley University and the Department of Communication participated in presidential election research as part of a nationwide election consortium with other universities. Dr. Anji L. Phillips, assistant professor of Communication in Television Arts, found students consume between 1-8 hours of media daily with similar time spent using television, Facebook, websites, YouTube, and Twitter. Less time was spent with radio and newspapers. Newspapers, however, were considered the most trusted media, followed by television, and websites.

Students also evaluated the characteristics of a potential president. 62 percent found Hillary Clinton more qualified in the role of president than the 12 percent who thought Donald Trump was more qualified. Neither Trump nor Clinton was considered honest. 22 percent thought Trump, and 15 percent thought Clinton was honest.

“Students consume a variety of media on multiple platforms, but their media diet is limited. This means that students are accessing the same few programs on a regular basis, which may limit the information they are using to make political decisions,” said Dr. Phillips. “Future research will seek to understand the impact of media frames on students, and their political decisions.”

Clinton earned just over 51 percent of the student vote, followed by Trump with over 21 percent, Gary Johnson with over 14 percent, and Jill Stein with almost 5 percent.

Participants in the national election survey self-identified as 41 percent Democrat, 23 percent Republican, 20 percent independent, and 5 percent Libertarian. Participants were also asked to evaluate candidates using a “feeling thermometer” from 0-100. Clinton rated 47, and Trump rated 24. Both Gary Johnson with 37, and Jill Stein with 32 outperformed Trump. These findings are consistent with results following the presidential debates.

Researchers surveyed approximately 1500 college-aged participants from Bradley University, as well as students from Indiana University, Iowa State University, Radford University (VA), San Diego State University, University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Wyoming, Georgia College, Governors State University (IL), and the University of Akron.