Election campaign and media exposure: explaining objective vs subjective political knowledge among first-time voters

Abstract

Existing research reveals the existence of objective (factual) and subjective (perceived) political knowledge among voters. However, we know little about their determinants, especially among people who have not voted before. This article aims to explain the factors influencing the objective and subjective political knowledge of first-time voters. Our analysis uses individual level data from an original survey conducted in the aftermath of the 2019 presidential elections in Romania on 664 first-time voters. The study distinguishes between three components of knowledge–motivation, ability and opportunity–and argues that they may have divergent effects. The empirical evidence based on ordinal logistic regression only partially supports these theoretical expectations, but it does reveal a rich picture.