College students remain politically challenged from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.

Two years ago, Texas Tech students created a video titled, “Politically-Challenged: Texas Tech Edition,” which showed said students asking other students political science questions. This video attempted to show the public how culturally illiterate young people were. The video went viral, and because of that, other videos started showing up. Recently, three students at this campus created a video along those same lines.

Jeremy Duff, professor in political science, said he doesn’t believe it is representative of colleges, but he does believe cultural literacy is a problem.

“On average, most Americans are uninformed,” Duff said. “This isn’t a new thing either. It’s shown up in surveys and polls since the 1960s.”

Duff also said he thinks that since people are so culturally illiterate, they don’t participate.

“Knowledge is participation. If you don’t know anything about politics, then you won’t participate,” he said.

According to Duff, a primary reason why today’s youth is so culturally illiterate is because they don’t think it affects them.

“They don’t own a house or have a family, so they don’t feel like it affects them in any way,” he said.

Linda Veazey, assistant professor in political science, agreed with Duff’s quote.

“Sometimes it’s hard to know why it’s needed to learn about cultures and political beliefs if they don’t affect you directly,” she said.

Veazey also said she thinks it can be hard for people to learn about other beliefs because they don’t believe in it and therefore it doesn’t matter to them.

“Some might think, ‘Oh, that’s not what I think, so I don’t want to know about it,’ and that isn’t a good mindset,” she said. “It’s important to come together politically because it better educates and it helps us become stronger as a nation.”

Mark Beauchamp, a candidate for Precinct One commissioner, pitched a different reason for cultural illiteracy.

“A lot is bad press and negativity,” he said. “After being involved in politics for four months, there’s a lot of negativity, and people run away from that. We need to stay positive.”

Now that the problem is presented, the next question is, is it fixable? Duff said he thinks it is fixable, and that it is slowly starting to change.

“Recently, we’ve seen more youth participation from things like Obama Campaign and what Bernie Sanders is doing with free tuition,” Duff said. “Candidates and professors need to find a way to educate and reach the students. I think making government classes part of curriculum for students was important.”

Veazey thinks that the realization of the importance of knowledge and participation can help.

“Once you realize that politics does affect your lives in some way, whether it be now or in the future, you will realize the importance of getting involved,” she said.

Beauchamp said he believes that candidates can help by presenting issues to the younger citizens in one-on-one communication, as well as staying optimistic throughout the campaign.

“One-on-one communication and getting to know the voters is one of the best things a candidate can do,” he said. “Also, a good optimistic approach will help them feel more confident in their candidate, which will drive them to vote.”

Another way that was mentioned to help people become more culturally literate was through news and social media. Veazey said reading more about candidates and their issues will help citizens feel more inclined to participate.

“Read up on candidates, read about what they’re doing and what they’re for and against. Once you know more about the candidates, you’ll know who you like, so you’ll want to vote,” Veazey said.

While news and media does inform people, it can also be false or biased. Duff said this can be a “catch-22” because what someone may be reading may seem factual, but if the person is to look at the sources, then they will see that it is fake.

Veazey said one way people can make sure they are reading the right information is by checking news sources.

“You never know until you check. Some guy in the dorm across from you could be writing some false article and you might read it and think it’s true. Make sure you check before believing what you read,” Veazey said.

According to Duff, another problem with social media is that it might make people feel like they’re participating, but they really aren’t.

“You may post a video about some sort of political debate and think, ‘Yay, I participated,’ but you didn’t. You have to go out and send letters, vote, and get yourself heard. Social media doesn’t mean participation,” Duff said.

While voting and learning more is helpful, according to Veazey, that can’t be all citizens do.

“After voting and getting your voice heard, you have to hold the elected officials accountable. Send them letters, send them emails. Let them know how you feel because that’s how you get them to pay attention,” she said.

Another thing citizens need to focus on, according to Veazey, is world politics because it will help them understand what is going on everywhere, which will help them better understand foreign policy.

“Read up on what’s going on in the world. If you do this, you’ll better understand what candidates are talking about when they mention foreign policy,” Veazey said.

She also said learning more about global politics will help people better understand foreign government, religion, and culture, by opening their minds to different beliefs.

“Join groups that discuss global politics. Here at MSU, the political science department is having a mock Model United Nations project where students go and act as diplomats of a different country,” Veazey said. “They have to make real government decisions, and to do that, they have to know about the country they’re representing. This helped them much better understand global politics.”

According to Veazey and Duff, cultural literacy is a fixable problem. Today’s youth must start paying attention and getting more involved or else government will never pay attention to their issues, which will affect them in the long run.

QUESTIONS ASKED:

• Name a country that begins with U.
• Who is the president on the $100 bill?
• Who is the current vice president?
• You have six apples.  You take four. How many do you have?
• Who invented the lightbulb?
• Name three of the five First Amendment rights.
• Who is Kim Kardashian married to?
• Who invented Apple?
• Who performed at the Super Bowl halftime show?
• Which weighs more: a pound of bricks, or a pound of feathers?

FURTHER READING: What Every American Should Know — Defining common cultural literacy for an increasingly diverse nation

Additional reporting by Bobby Williams

Video editing by Harley Warrick