new media & society 1–20 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1461444815611593 nms.sagepub.com Youth comprehension of political messages in YouTube videos Benjamin T Bowyer and Joseph E Kahne Mills College, USA Ellen Middaugh San Jose State University, USA Abstract This article investigates the extent to which young people are able to comprehend the political messages contained in satirical videos that circulate online. We do so through an analysis of responses to videos embedded within an online survey of 15- to 25-year- olds (N = 2070) conducted in 2011. Respondents were randomly assigned to view one of two short, humorous YouTube videos relating to immigration policy and were then asked questions that tested their comprehension of what they had seen. Substantial proportions of our sample were unable to answer these correctly. Further analysis indicates that individuals’ levels of political knowledge and their predisposition to agree with the message contained in the video are strong predictors of comprehension. These findings indicate that the potential impact of incidental exposure to online political communications is smaller than many scholars have assumed, particularly when the message is inconsistent with the viewer’s prior beliefs. Keywords Comprehension, motivated reasoning, social media, political knowledge, youth, YouTube As the Internet and digital media facilitate the circulation of political messages outside the traditional channels of print or broadcast media, new opportunities arise for indi- viduals to express their views and to engage with multiple perspectives. In particular, Corresponding author: Benjamin T Bowyer, School of Education, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613, USA. Email: bbowyer@mills.edu 611593NMS 0 0 10.1177/1461444815611593new media & societyBowyer et al. research-article 2015 Article at MILLS COLG LIBRARY on October 20, 2015 nms.sagepub.com Downloaded from