Mediating role of civic talk on the relationship of news consumption and sense of civic responsibility among youth / Tilagavati Subramaniam

A sense of civic responsibility is fostered and developed through frequent involvement in sharing civic knowledge and solving social problems, individually and collectively. In other words, a citizen with a sense of civic responsibility would be more responsive and supportive of developmental efforts at all levels (i.e., social and political). Hence, this sense of civic responsibility is widely recognised as an essential stepping-stone towards becoming a productive citizen in the future. Past studies have shown that various factors impact the youth’s willingness to inculcate a sense of civic responsibility. This research attempts to clarify the influence of news consumption from a variety of media and civic talk on the sense of civic responsibility. Descriptive analysis and the Structural Equation Modelling Partial Least Squares were employed for data analysis. One significant contribution of the study findings is that it has clarified the role of civic talk in the relationship between news consumption and sense of civic responsibility. A respondent with a low level of news consumption seemed to benefit from civic talk involvement and this influenced the development of his sense of civic responsibility. This result is a pertinent input that could be used to ensure a good educational outcome for students, particularly to develop a sense of civic responsibility in them.