Political socialization is a process by people from their ideas about politics and acquire political values. There are four major agents of socialization in the life of many people today. Those major agents are family, school, peers, and mass media. There are also two other agents called religion and workplace.
political ideas are shaped within the family. Parents occasionally talk politics with their children, but casual remarks made around the dinner table or while helping with homework can have an impact. The family may be losing its power as an agent of socialization, however, as institutions take over more of child care and parents perform less of it.
The school and peer agent is also important because it helps a child learn social, friendship, loyalty, values, and patriotism skills with other peers. I think these two agents are very similar due to the fact when you go to school and get peers and this is where you learn about peer pressure at school and many other places. Learning to be social could be very hard on certain kids who don’t have a family that didn’t help them met some of their needs as a young child or as a young adult.
Although peer pressure certainly affects teenagers lifestyles, it is less evident in developing their political values. Exceptions are issues that directly affect them, such as the Vietnam War during the 1960s. Later, if peers are defined in terms of occupation, then the group does exert an influence on how its members think politically. For example, professionals such as
teachers or bankers often have similar political opinions, particularly on matters related to their careers.
Much of our political information comes from the mass media like newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet. The amount of time the average American family watches TV makes it the dominant information source. Not only does television help shape public opinion by providing news and analysis, but its entertainment programming...