Title: Political Participation - Paul Sargent Makes History
Headings: 
1. Factors associated with political ideology, efficacy, structural barriers, and demographics influence the nature and degree of political participation.
2. Political parties, interest groups, and social movements provide opportunities for participation and influence how people relate to government and policymakers.
3. The impact of federal policies on campaigning and electoral rules continues to be contested by both sides of the political spectrum.
4. The various forms of media provide citizens with political information and influence the ways in which they participate politically.

Content: The various forms of media provide citizens with political information and influence the ways in which they participate politically. Explain the media’s role as a linkage institution. Traditional news media, new communication technologies, and advances in social media have profoundly influenced how citizens routinely acquire political information, including new events, investigative journalism, election coverage, and political commentary. The media’s use of polling results to convey popular levels of trust and confidence in government can impact elections by turning such events into “horse races” based more on popularity and factors other than qualifications and platforms of candidates. Explain how increasingly diverse choices of media and communication outlets influence political institutions and behavior. Political participation is influenced by a variety of media coverage, analysis, and commentary on political events. The rapidly increasing demand for media and political communications outlets from an ideologically diverse audience have led debates over media bias and the impact of media ownership and partisan news sites. The nature of democratic debate and the level of political knowledge among citizens is impacted by: Increased media choices
Ideologically oriented programming
Consumer-driven media outlets and emerging technologies that reinforce existing beliefs
Uncertainty over the credibility of news sources and information