Name: Alexandra Agostinelli
Section: American Politics
Professional Email: ajagosti@buffalo.edu
Professional Status: Graduate Student
Institution: University At Buffalo
Scheduling Preference: Saturday Morning
Proposal Type: Paper
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Paper Title:  Political Habits of Bronies: A Comparative Study on Non-Governmental Participation among Bronies
Abstract:
This study aims to examine the impact of popular culture on political beliefs. Specifically, it explores whether involvement and comfort expressing that involvement in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan community influences the adult fans’ feelings of political efficacy and their level of level of involvement in civic and non-electoral political participation compared to the general population of American adults, regardless of political identification. This research hypothesizes that as individuals become more connected to a culturally homogenous and identifiable community, the more that community will mold their political opinions and actions. In addition, when the cohesiveness that binds a community together is a media product, the explicit and implicit messages contained in that product will influence the opinions and behaviors of the individuals in the community. Greater involvement and connection to the community leads to higher civic and non-electoral participation. To collect data, in- person interviews of attendees at the BronyCon convention in Baltimore during early August 2014 were conducted. Surveys were also administered through a number of social network sites visited by fans of the franchise. This dual data collection technique promises to bring richness to the findings that emerge from the study, as the qualitative responses from the personal interviews can be used to elucidate the various mechanisms whereby membership in a fan community influences aspect of political behavior and belief construction. Counties with more than three respondents were used to compare respondent’s ideology and the general population. One interesting finding is, as as a whole, the Brony community leans politically left, however in the locations of respondents that allowed for further analysis, the Bronies leaned politically right.