A Big Bird effect? The interaction among public broadcasting, public subsidies, and political knowledge

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick O’Mahen
Keyword(s):  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Public Broadcasting ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Advertising Revenue ◽  
Public Subsidies ◽  
Industrialized Democracies ◽  
Knowledge Levels

Policymakers in industrialized democracies often debate the efficacy of subsidizing public broadcasters. Surprisingly however, past media and politics research analyzing the effects of public broadcasting on political knowledge does not isolate the effect of subsidies and instead treats all public broadcasters as equals. This study theorizes that subsidized public broadcasters have to worry less about competing with entertainment-oriented commercial broadcasters for advertising revenue than their unsubsidized peers. As a result, they can focus on providing more comprehensive public affairs coverage instead of only worrying about attracting the largest possible audience. To test this theory, I use Eurobarometer data measuring knowledge, media consumption, and demographic variables from 14 countries. I find that watching public broadcasting increases knowledge levels among citizens, while decreasing gaps in knowledge between citizens caused by varying levels of education, income, gender, and political interest. However, as predicted, these benefits only occur in countries that provide significant subsidies for their public broadcasters.

scholarly journals AUTHORITARIANISM AND COGNITIVE POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 521
Author(s):  
Zoran Pavlović ◽  
Bojan Todosijević
Keyword(s):  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Opinion Survey ◽  
Authoritarian Personality ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
New Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Voting Age

This study analyses the linkage between authoritarianism and three indicators that describe one’s general cognitive orientation towards the world of politics: political knowledge, general interest in politics, and interest in the election campaign. Individuals high in authoritarianism are hypothesized to be less politically competent and less interested in politics, due to their resistance to adopting new information and to changing the adopted beliefs. This hypothesis is based on the classical description of the authoritarian personality, but it has not been adequately empirically verified yet. The data are taken from a post-election public opinion survey conducted in 2012 after the presidential and parliamentary elections, on a random sample of voting age citizens of Serbia (N = 1568). The results show that authoritarianism and the level of political knowledge are significantly and negatively correlated, even after controlling for the basic socio-demographic variables. The intensity of political interest is not significantly correlated with authoritarianism. Additional comparison of the misinformed and uninformed groups (those who provided incorrect answers, and those who answered “don't know”, respectively) did not support the view that authoritarian persons are more inclined to erroneously guess an answer than to simply say “don’t know”. The study concludes that the association between political knowledge and authoritarianism is based on deeper psychological roots, while the (lack of) association with political interest is likely to be context-dependent.

News finds me perception and democracy: Effects on political knowledge, political interest, and voting

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1253-1271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Homero Gil de Zúñiga ◽  
Trevor Diehl
Keyword(s):  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Information Networks ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
The Public ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship

Recent scholarship suggests that overreliance on social networks for news and public affairs is associated with the belief that one no longer needs to actively seek information. Instead, individuals perceive that the “news will find me” (NFM) and detach from the regular habit of traditional news consumption. This study examines effects of the NFM perception on political knowledge, political interest, and electoral participation. Drawing on a nationally representative panel survey from the United States ( N = 997), this study finds that the NFM perception is negatively associated with both political knowledge and political interest across two time periods. The NFM perception also leads to negative, indirect effects on voting as the relationship is mediated through lower reported levels of political knowledge and interest in politics. The findings add to current conversations about the ability of personalized information networks to adequately inform and engage the public.

Political Knowledge and Misinformation in the Era of Social Media: Evidence From the 2015 UK Election

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Kevin Munger ◽  
Patrick J. Egan ◽  
Jonathan Nagler ◽  
Jonathan Ronen ◽  
Joshua Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
News Media ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Media Platform

Abstract Does social media educate voters, or mislead them? This study measures changes in political knowledge among a panel of voters surveyed during the 2015 UK general election campaign while monitoring the political information to which they were exposed on the Twitter social media platform. The study's panel design permits identification of the effect of information exposure on changes in political knowledge. Twitter use led to higher levels of knowledge about politics and public affairs, as information from news media improved knowledge of politically relevant facts, and messages sent by political parties increased knowledge of party platforms. But in a troubling demonstration of campaigns' ability to manipulate knowledge, messages from the parties also shifted voters' assessments of the economy and immigration in directions favorable to the parties' platforms, leaving some voters with beliefs further from the truth at the end of the campaign than they were at its beginning.

Political Talk Over Here, Over There, Over Time

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN E. BENNETT ◽  
RICHARD S. FLICKINGER ◽  
STACI L. RHINE
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
Important Form ◽  
Over Time

Data from Great Britain and the United States from the late 1950s to the early 1990s show relatively little change in the frequency with which citizens engage in political discussions, with whom they are likely to speak, and the variables that shape their propensity to engage in political talk. In addition, analyses of the data show that discussing politics enhances citizens' knowledge of public affairs, even net of other variables known to affect political knowledge. Students of political behaviour and those interested in strengthening democracy need to treat political discussions as an important form of political participation.

Conditions for Political Accountability in a High-Choice Media Environment

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Prior
Keyword(s):  
Communication Technology ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Small Subset ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Small Segment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Tuning Out

Communication technology has increased availability of public affairs information, but many citizens ignore it. How do greater availability and less widespread consumption of news affect political accountability? Not all citizens have to follow the news for media coverage to improve accountability. Under some conditions, higher levels of news exposure and political knowledge in a relatively small subset of the population could strengthen accountability, even when other citizens follow the news less than in the past. For this to work, news junkies must effectively represent the interests of those who are tuning out. If news junkies have different interests than the rest of the population, their efforts to monitor officials and raise concerns may lead to less representative government and lower accountability. As a result of more media choice, the task of holding elected officials accountable rests increasingly on a small segment of the population.

scholarly journals Are politically engaged citizens more democratic? A glimpse from Brazil

2022 ◽  
pp. 019251212110565
Author(s):  
Camila Mont’Alverne ◽  
Diego Moraes ◽  
Thaíse Kemer
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Multivariate Regression ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Interpersonal Trust ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Support For Democracy ◽  
Do So

A significant part of the Western literature on democracy assumes that political participation leads to citizens being more committed to democratic values. However, we do not know to what extent this is true in young democracies with an authoritarian tradition. Hence, this article aims to examine whether politically engaged Brazilians are more democratic. To do so, we analyzed whether there is any association between political participation, support for democracy, and democracy relativization through multivariate regression models. Our database comprises a representative sample of 2417 interviews with the electorate of São Paulo in 2019. The results show a statistically significant association between unconventional political participation and support for democracy. General political participation is associated with non-relativization of democracy only, showing a limited relationship between support for democracy and participation. Other variables, such as political interest, political knowledge, and interpersonal trust, are also associated with higher support for democracy.

Question-Order Effects in Surveys: The Case of Political Interest, News Attention, and Knowledge

2003 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic L. Lasorsa
Keyword(s):  
Context Effects ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Knowledge Test ◽  
Poor Knowledge ◽  
Survey Questions ◽  
Question Order

Subjects were exposed to one of three survey versions differing only in question order. Those who first faced difficult political knowledge questions reported significantly lower levels of both political interest and news attention than those who did not first face the knowledge test. However, when the knowledge questions and the interest and attention questions were separated by a “buffer” item that could serve as an excuse for poor knowledge, self-assessed interest and attention were less depressed. Characteristics of survey questions that may make them particularly susceptible to these types of question-order context effects are discussed and strategies for dealing with such effects are noted.

Combining Big Data and Survey Techniques to Model Effects of Political Content Flows in Facebook

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Wells ◽  
Kjerstin Thorson
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Survey Techniques ◽  
Data Measurement ◽  
Novel Method

This article introduces a novel method that combines a “big data” measurement of the content of individuals’ Facebook (FB) news feeds with traditional survey measures to explore the antecedents and effects of exposure to news and politics content on the site. Drawing on recent theoretical and methodological advances, we demonstrate how such a hybrid approach can be used to (a) untangle distinct channels of public affairs content within respondents’ FB news feeds, (b) explore why respondents vary in the extent to which they encounter public affairs content on the site, and (c) examine whether the amount and type of public affairs content flows in one’s FB is associated with political knowledge and participation above and beyond self-report measures of news media use.

Exposure to Information, Belief Integration, and Individual Responsiveness to Agenda Change

1984 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael MacKuen
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Public Choice ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Component Model ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Two Component ◽  
Individual Responsiveness ◽  
The Impact

This article examines individual responsiveness to the media's changing political agenda during the years from 1964 to 1980. In the context of a dynamic model, the data indicate that responsiveness is positively associated with education, political interest, and a social motivation to attend to public affairs. A two-component model, in which heightened involvement increases individuals' exposure to information but also decreases their receptivity to the impact of the messages, is considered in a multivariate analysis. Although the results are only suggestive, the exposure function appears to operate for all three variables, whereas the inhibitions owing to the integration of previous information are evident only for political interest. Some speculations are offered about how these results may elaborate models of democratic public choice.

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