Adult Learning and Reflecting on Political News: An Examination of the Public Pedagogy of Social Media
Open Access
- Author:
- Ingerick, Patricia
- Graduate Program:
- Adult Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Education
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 05, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Karin M Sprow-Forte, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Karin M Sprow-Forte, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Robin Redmon Wright, Committee Member
Peter Jones Kareithi, Committee Member
Anthony Bak Buccitelli, Outside Member
Elizabeth Jean Tisdell, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Keywords: Social media
public pedagogy
reflection
political news
observational learning
cognitive overload
Social media
Public Pedagogy
Reflection
Political News
Facebook
Adult Education - Abstract:
- This qualitative study sought to understand how social media, as a site of public pedagogy, influences how adults use reflection to learn from political news content. The theoretical frameworks of public pedagogy and social cognitive theory informed the analysis of results. The study focused on the experiences of ten social media users between the ages of 25 and 29 who consumed political news on social media and attempted to understand the factors that influenced how they used reflection as part of their learning process. Data were collected through semi-structured participant interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Five primary findings emerged from this study. First, participants perceived that social media was a context for learning that provided broad access to unique content offering differing viewpoints. Second, when learning from social media participants needed to apply an abundance of caution when selecting content to consider. Third, the participants perceived that social media provided moments of inquiry and reflection, especially when friends or trusted sources post content or comments. Fourth, the participants perceived that the unmoderated nature of social media platforms shut down discussions about political news topics due to conflict, which appeared to limit their reflection process. Fifth, the participants perceived that they experienced cognitive overload, which influenced their reflection process when learning about political news topics on social media. This study confirms that the process of reflection is possible when consuming political news from social media, however, the social components of, and the cognitive overload experienced on social media greatly influence this important part of the process of learning.