“People in Maryland are connecting to information, but to what end?” –Civic Literacy Summit participant

When it comes to civic health, a key indicator is staying informed (for instance, by keeping up with the news or searching the Internet), and discussing current events with others.

This indicator looks at how often people read newspapers or watch the news, as well as how often they discuss politics or issues with family and friends.

Overall, this is an indicator where Maryland's civic health appears to be strong. This may be no surprise, given the state's proximity to Washington, D.C. and the relatively large proportion of residents who are involved with government and politics.

The state ranks 5th in the rate of people 18 and older who talk about politics with friends and family at least a few times a week, at 45.8%. Nationally, 39.3% of Americans 18 or older discuss politics with friends and family a few times a week or more.

Younger Marylanders are especially more likely than their peers elsewhere to connect with information, discussing politics with their friends and family or gathering news frequently. More than three quarters (75.5%) of Maryland “Generation X” residents (born 1965 through 1980) are connected in this way, compared with 67.9% nationwide. For Maryland's Millennial Generation, 67.6% are highly connected to information (versus 58.0% nationwide).

In fact, some community–conversation participants expressed dismay at the dynamic created in talking politics with their friends and family. It's almost too much, for these individuals. “Half of my family is very strong one way and half the other way,” said one participant. “It's hard to be in the middle of those views to speak out.”

Maryland is also comfortably ahead of national results when it comes to how often people say they keep up with the news media. One in ve (21.4%) say they read newsmagazines at least a few times a week, compared with 16.8% nationally. Six in ten (60.8%) say they get the news from the radio at least a few times a week (54.5% nationally). Almost seven in ten (69.7%) say they read the newspaper a few times per week or more (67.5% nationally).

Marylanders aged 25 and up with no college experience accessed information and engaged in political conversation less frequently (27.5%) than did those with college experience (43.6%).

More than a third (36.6%) of Marylanders get news frequently as well as discuss politics with friends and family, while one quarter (25.6%) does neither. Millennials are most likely to do neither (32.4%) and Baby Boomers are most likely to do both (38.8%). Marylanders who both access information and talk politics are also likely to engage in political acts beyond voting (41.5%).

Marylanders are just as likely to get news from the TV as the national average (85.8% versus 86.0% nationally).

Also of interest is that Marylanders are more likely (23.2%) than the national rate (19.7%) to get news and information from the Internet (blogs, chatrooms, or independent news).

Even with these relatively high levels of information consumption, some community–conversation participants were worried about how well their friends and neighbors were doing in this respect — and gave themselves low marks, too. “I get the newspaper every day, but never read it,” said one community–conversation participant. “People are informed on a very surface level. They tend to get their info from one place, maybe with an agenda. You can't just listen to one person,” said another. (However, this critical concern may be seen, in fact, as a symptom of a high degree of media literacy).

From the Civic Literacy Summit:
Participants at the Civic Literacy Summit made recommendations focused on both improving the quality of people's media consumption, but also increasing the amount and quality of people's interactions on issues. They also felt it important to dig deeper into why people consume certain types of information, and to better use the communication potential of the Internet.

The Summit workgroup on connecting with information made these recommendations:

• Collect more data on the demographic and attitudinal factors of those consuming information (e.g., education level, socio–economic level, reason for discussing politics)

• Create public forums to model civility in public discourse and discuss bias in the media. Integrate these two elements in the school setting as well. Bring together people from different parts of the state, not just homogeneous groups

• Explore how to use social media to spread information, connect people, and activate them using the information with which they have connected

• Actively teach information literacy so citizens can better make sense of and utilize the increasing number of information sources available