Student survey: Political knowledge vs. pop culture knowledge

For the last few months, I’ve been exploring the ins and outs of how TV shows and movies influence our political beliefs. I have used experts to back up the points I’ve been making as often as possible, but this week I wanted to get the input of another important group – my peers. This group is especially important because I focus on them as a target audience/recipient of television’s influence. Therefore, I was especially interested in seeing how my peers perceive media’s influence on themselves and others. But to start off with, I did a simple survey designed to test people’s knowledge of current events as opposed to their knowledge of pop culture. I surveyed ten of my fellow college students in the student center on campus, asking them ten questions:

1) Which actor is cast to play Batman in the upcoming “Batman vs. Superman” movie?

–> Five of the ten students surveyed knew the correct answer: Ben Affleck

2) Who is the current vice president of the United States?

–> Nine of the ten students surveyed knew the correct answer: Joe Biden. The student who got it wrong said Dick Cheney, so he wasn’t as far off as he could have been.

3) Name the five main characters (including Scooby) in the original Scooby-Doo series.

–> An impressive 70% of the ten students surveyed could correctly name all five characters: Shaggy, Fred, Velma, Daphne, and Scooby. Only one student did not know any of them, and the remaining two students knew three of them: Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby.

4) The Senate just voted on the fate of “Keystone XL.” What is Keystone XL?

–> Three students knew that Keystone XL is a pipeline. Seven students did not know what it is.

5) Name one actor or actress from the cast of Saturday Night Live.

–> Two students put celebrities who had past rather than current involvement with the show – Adam Sandler and Conan O’Brien. But three students named current cast members, and one guessed Kristin Bell, who has actually never been on the show. Four of the ten students left this answer blank.

6) Name one of Texas’ two senators.

–> Eight students either left this question blank or got it wrong. Only two students answered this question correctly (Ted Cruz and/or John Cornyn).

7) Which famous actor recently committed suicide?

–> Four students did not know the answer. Five students said Robin Williams (the answer I was looking for), and one said Heath Ledger, which was not the answer I was looking for, but it still effectively demonstrates the student’s knowledge of pop culture events.

8) Which area of the world contains the Gaza Strip?

–> Three students did not know. The other seven said some variation of the Middle East/Israel/Palestine.

9) How many Pirates of the Caribbean movies currently exist?

–> Four students said three, and the other six (correctly) said four.

10) The recent midterm election resulted in Democrats losing control of which governing body?

–> Four students got this question wrong, and six answered correctly – the Senate – but at least one of them was just guessing, as indicated by the question mark after her answer.

The final tally: the odd-numbered pop culture questions were answered correctly 58% of the time, while the even-numbered political questions were answered correctly 54% of the time. I was expecting students’ pop culture knowledge to outshine their political knowledge by a long shot, but I was glad to be wrong in this instance. But the point we can take away is that pop culture is just as influential, if not more so, than politics, so just imagine the effects when the two of them are combined. In my next post, I will examine perceptions of media influence more in-depth.