[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Influence is an interesting argument. A big factor is how different age groups get their information and what they do with it. This paper is quite interesting - https://www.researchgate.net/publica...ion_as_leveler

Unsurprisingly, it shows that social media is a large influencer with the young while traditional print and TV media has a greater impact in older groups. There is a definite 'push' vs.'pull' effect here. Good social media advertising will be well targeted tote receiver and the parties who are good at this will have some success. In this case, information is 'pushed' to the receiver. In print media, we tend to buy papers which reflect us and our values and so to an extent confirms what we think already - the recipient 'pulls' the information.

This works to the extent where groups of people with certain political alignments are almost defined by the media they consume such as centre left 'Guardianistas'.

So, are the young more easily influenced than the old? By influenced, I mean more likely to change their mind on who to vote for. Probably yes but the question is why? I can think of a few reasons;

• Using a broader church of media reduces confirmation bias
• Use of the resources such as the internet allows a deeper level of fact checking
• Interaction with a broader demographic (see this forum as a good example)
• Political advertising can be targeted or 'pushed' to the audience

Well argued.

---------- Post added at 16:33 ---------- Previous post was at 16:31 ----------

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Or, to put it another way, the young are more open minded that the old.

The number of times I have heard older people recite what they have been told by the Express and Mail which are, at best half truths and at worst lies suggests that they are influenced.

Now you've gone and spoiled it!

The young are more open minded - yes; ability to properly digest what's pushed to them - less likely until they've got a lot older.

---------- Post added at 16:35 ---------- Previous post was at 16:33 ----------

Originally Posted by papa smurf

A fresh sponge soaks up more syrup,but the syrup just runs off an old sponge

A fresh sponge is unlikley to know the difference between proper syrup and fake syrup.