Towards Engaged Citizens: Influences of Second Screening on College Students’ Political Knowledge and Participation

Commonly conducted alongside political TV viewing, second screening is a new media use behavior that merits explorations at diverse levels. But the research on second screening is still in its infancy. To deeply understand the complicated mechanism of second screening and its influence in a political milieu, this study focuses on the second screening activities aroused by televised political campaign news and programs, and (1) identifies specific categories of second screening activities during television campaign exposure, and (2) establishes the indirect influences of each type of second screening activity on individuals’ cognition (political knowledge) and behavior (political participation) through internal (internal political efficacy) and external (political discussion) factors.