| Prior to the 2024 US Presidential Election, APSA’s Diversity and Inclusion Programs Department issued a call for submissions, entitled 2024 APSA Post-Election Reflections, for a PSNow blog series of political science scholars who reflect on key moments, ideas, and challenges faced in the 2024 election. The views expressed in this series are those of the authors and contributors alone and do not represent the views of the APSA. |
A Survey Research Approach to Active Learning During the 2024 Presidential Election | by Diana Owen, Georgetown University
The presidential contest of 2024 provided a unique context for a graduate research seminar on Media and American Elections that I taught for the Communication, Culture, and Technology (CCT) program at Georgetown University. Unprecedented circumstances and novel developments occurred with startling regularity throughout the campaign. The extant literature on elections provided a foundation for unpacking what had become the new (ab)normal in elections, but many questions were left unanswered. To gain a deeper understanding of the electorate’s attitudes, orientations, and behaviors, the seminar conducted an original representative national survey of eligible voters immediately following the 2024 election sponsored by the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL) at Georgetown University. The class collaboratively decided to focus on the topics of voters’ use of and trust in election media, including social media, established and emerging forms of electoral engagement, the role of celebrities in campaigns, social group influence on vote choice, issue preferences, and voting integrity. We explored how factors specific to the 2024 election, such as the switch in the Democratic ticket from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris and the assassination attempts on Donald Trump, impacted voter decision-making. Each seminar participant researched and analyzed the data on a topic of their choice. The students shared their work throughout the course and had the option of continuing to develop their projects after the conclusion of the seminar. Students have presented their work at the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting and the New England Political Science Association 2025 Conference.
The following are synopses of two of the students’ research projects illustrating the range of subjects covered by the survey. Jisoo Choi addressed the core research question: Were there generational differences in media use in the 2024 election? Jonathan Briggs’ research focused on the question: Did the threat of political violence influence voters’ trust in the electoral process? Both students are earning their Masters degrees in CCT.
Is Generation Z Rediscovering Print Media? Unexpected Trends in the 2024 Election News Engagement | by Jisoo Choi, Georgetown University
The media consumption habits during the 2024 U.S. Presidential election revealed surprising generational dynamics, particularly in today’s fragmented media landscape. Social media is the dominant news source across generations, with 65.2% of respondents citing frequent usage. Online news sites followed closely at 63.6%, while traditional television news trailed at 43.4%. Print media, long considered a fading medium, had a strikingly low overall reach, with only 8.6% of the sample reporting frequent usage. However, hidden within these figures lies an intriguing shift in Generation Z’s (born 1997-2012) relationship with print media compared to Millennials (1981-1996), Generation Xers (1965-1980), and Baby Boomers (1946-1964).
While print media usage has waned across most demographics, Generation Z displayed unexpected engagement. A higher proportion of Gen Z respondents (8.8%) reported frequent use of print newspapers and magazines, surpassing Millennials (5.7%) and even Generation X (7.1%). Trust in print media followed a similar trend, with 10.9% of Generation Z expressing high trust, compared to 6.2% of Millennials, 9.3% of Generation X, and 7.1% of Baby Boomers. This trust is not mirrored by older generations, who showed significantly higher levels of mistrust. Among Millennials, 43.1% reported low trust in print media, followed by Generation X (41.4%) and Baby Boomers (39.1%). In stark contrast, only 26.9% of Generation Z expressed comparable levels of mistrust. This generational twist extended to legacy outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post, where Generation Z reported higher engagement and trust than older cohorts.
What drives this divergence in media trust and engagement? Is it a reaction to the disarray of digital misinformation, or does it reflect a unique cultural or educational factor within Generation Z? These patterns call for a deeper exploration of how the youngest voters are redefining their relationship with media amid political and technological transformation.
Trust and Political Violence: An Analysis of the 2024 US Presidential Election | by Jonathan Briggs, Georgetown University
After the assassination attempts on Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign, it was apparent that the U.S. was experiencing a form of civil strife through extreme social stratification. In response to the increased divisions, the loss of faith in democratic institutions, and the presence of political violence, voters were forced to choose between picking a side in the polarized climate or becoming politically disengaged. This study looked at the level of concern towards threats to democracy and threats of political violence among voters who distrust the electoral process. I asked three questions: 1) Do voters’ concerns about the threat of political violence correlate with concerns about threats to democracy? 2) Do concerns over threats to democracy correlate with distrust of elections? 3) Do concerns over political violence correlate with distrust of elections?
The study found that voters who were concerned about threats to democracy also were worried about political violence. Over 85% of voters were personally concerned about threats to democracy and political violence. The analysis found a strong, statistically significant correlation (Pearson’s R=.60; p≤.01) between concern about threats to democracy and political violence.
Overall, this study found consistent significant associations between distrust in the election and concerns about threats to democracy and political violence. Distrusting voters were mostly extremely or very concerned about democracy and violence. (See Table 1 and Table 2.) Around 60% of voters who had no trust in the voting process were extremely/very concerned about democracy and violence. A higher percentage of voters who distrusted in-person paper ballots were concerned about threats to democracy and violence compared to distrust of electronic ballots/voting machines and mail-in ballots. Voters who had no trust in paid voting officials were more likely to be concerned about democracy and violence than those who distrusted volunteer poll workers. High percentages of voters with no trust in the election outcome or vote totals were extremely/very concerned about democracy and violence. Around 70% of respondents who did not trust that the election was free from foreign interference were extremely/very worried about threats to democracy and violence.
The goal of this study was to provide some insight into the minds of distrusting voters. Further studies should be done with this data to get a more comprehensive view of the relationship between trust and political violence among the U.S electorate and democracies more broadly.
Table 1: Concern about threats to democracy among voters with little to no trust
| Trust: Not at all | Extremely | Very | Somewhat | Not Very | Chi-square | Tau-C | Tau-C significance |
| The voting process | 34% | 28% | 22% | 16% | 0.01 | 0.13 | 0.01 |
| Mail-in Ballots | 26% | 26% | 29% | 20% | 0.01 | 0.21 | 0.01 |
| Electronic ballots/Voting Machines | 35% | 24% | 20% | 21% | 0.01 | 0.12 | 0.01 |
| In-person paper ballots | 41% | 23% | 18% | 18% | 0.01 | 0.06 | 0.01 |
| Volunteer poll workers | 32% | 22% | 27% | 20% | 0.01 | 0.13 | 0.01 |
| Paid voting officials | 37% | 24% | 20% | 19% | 0.01 | 0.07 | 0.01 |
| The outcome of the election | 49% | 24% | 16% | 11% | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.74 |
| The voting totals as reported | 41% | 24% | 22% | 14% | 0.30 | 0.02 | 0.28 |
| The election is free from foreign interference | 50% | 22% | 18% | 10% | 0.01 | -0.14 | 0.01 |
Table 2: Concern about threats of political violence among voters with little to no trust
| Trust: Not at all | Extremely | Very | Somewhat | Not Very | Chi-square | Tau-C | Tau-C significance |
| The voting process | 35% | 22% | 22% | 22% | 0.01 | 0.11 | 0.01 |
| Mail-in Ballots | 22% | 25% | 33% | 20% | 0.01 | 0.16 | 0.01 |
| Electronic ballots/Voting Machines | 28% | 24% | 24% | 24% | 0.01 | 0.11 | 0.01 |
| In-person paper ballots | 40% | 22% | 24% | 14% | 0.01 | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Volunteer poll workers | 25% | 29% | 24% | 23% | 0.01 | 0.09 | 0.01 |
| Paid voting officials | 36% | 21% | 24% | 19% | 0.01 | 0.04 | 0.1 |
| The outcome of the election | 43% | 25% | 17% | 16% | 0.01 | -0.10 | 0.52 |
| The voting totals as reported | 37% | 24% | 25% | 15% | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.6 |
| The election is free from foreign interference | 38% | 30% | 19% | 12% | 0.01 | -0.09 | 0.01 |
Diana Owen is a Professor in the Communication, Culture, and Technology graduate program and Director of the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL) at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on Her current research program explores how civic education prepares young people for citizenship and engagement in the digital age and media’s effects on political behavior. She was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow and the President of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society. She is a recipient of the Established Leader Award from the Civic Engagement Section of the American Political Science Association. Contact Diana Owen owend@georgetown.edu for further information about the survey and related research.
Jisoo Choi is a graduate student in Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture, and Technology program. Her research explores the shifting patterns of media consumption and trust, and how they reshape civic engagement and public understanding of the world. She is especially interested in how younger generations negotiate their relationship with media in a rapidly changing political and technological environment.
Jonathan Briggs is pursuing a Master’s in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University. Throughout his academic career, his research has focused primarily on populism, and political communication. Jonathan has recently taken an interest in issues of privacy and technology regulation, as management of digital spaces becomes increasingly linked to real-world political consequences. He went to the University of Mississippi before coming to Georgetown, where he received degrees in international studies and journalism.