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The Impact of Mass Media on Political Communication in Democracy

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  1. Chapter 18 Mass-Mediated Political Communication Effects

  2. Influences on Political Communication • Social scene • Political landscape • Media environment • Media content

  3. Functions of Mass Media in Democracy • Surveillance of contemporary events that are likely to impinge upon the welfare of citizens • Identification of key sociopolitical issues • Provision of platforms for advocacy • Transmission of diverse content across the various dimensions and factions of political discourse

  4. Functions of Mass Media in Democracy (Cont’d) • Scrutiny of government officials • Incentives and information to allow citizens to become more actively informed participants • Principled resistance to external sources attempting to subvert media autonomy • Respectful consideration of the audience as potentially concerned and efficacious citizens

  5. Media Content • Two types: • Political advertising: primary form of communication between political candidates and the voting public • News stories: television advertising for political candidates • usually used for major campaigns

  6. Media Content (Cont’d) • Political ads on television usually: • Present particular candidate images • Provide information about key issues • Provide more information about campaign issues than candidate images

  7. Types of Media Content • Frames • Abstract notions that media professionals use to present news stories • News flaws • Personalization • Fragmentation • Dramatization • Normalization

  8. News Flaws That Influence Political Communication • Personalization • The tendency for news stories to concentrate on individuals when reporting on large-scale social concerns • Fragmentation • The delivery of news in brief capsule summaries

  9. News Flaws That Influence Political Communication (Cont’d) • Dramatization • News is selected based on entertainment value rather than its importance as an issue. • Normalization • News stories show how particular problems can be solved within the existing political system.

  10. Research on Political Communication Effects • Most political communication studies concentrate on the individual. • Macro-level studies examine effects on systems. • The nature and strength of effects from mediated political communication depend on a number of different factors.

  11. Micro-level Studies • Four major areas: • Formation and change of opinion • Effects of cognitive processes • Voter perceptions of the political system • Effects on political behavior or participation

  12. Formation and Change of Opinion • Political media messages produce much stronger effects than previously thought. • Models used to conduct studies: • Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model • Fishbein and Ajzen’s reasoned action model • Variables of interest in persuasion include: • message variables, channels, timing, audience variables, and effects from polling information

  13. Effects of Cognitive Processes • Four types of research have been used: • Agenda-setting research • Priming research • Knowledge gain • Framing • Researchers have tried to measure audiences’ broader understanding of political information conveyed in news stories.

  14. Voter Perceptions • Voters are persuaded less by personal “pocketbook” matters than by their perceptions about the economic health of the country. • Media coverage may cause voters to perceive individuals to be responsible for particular social problems such as poverty or crime. • Two types of frames for political news stories: • Episodic- using case study examples • Thematic- approaching an issue from a general perspective

  15. Political Behavior • Media effects may be direct or indirect. • Political ads have proven effective in influencing voting decisions. • Many people learn from political ads and may be influenced by both positive and negative ads. • Negative political ads are effective in influencing voters when: • Voters perceive them to be fair • They focus on issues that are important to voters

  16. Political Behavior (Cont’d) • People tend to remember negative ads more than positive ads. • Adwatches provide analyses, interpretations and evaluations of the ads. • The strength of influence on voting behavior attributed to interpersonal communication has varied.

  17. Macro-level Studies • Few macro-level effects studies are conducted due to difficulties in measurement. • Purely descriptive macro-level studies abound

  18. Descriptive Macro Studies • Few people are politically knowledgeable and active. • People with high levels of education tend to vote more often. • Television has been blamed for problems with the American political system.

  19. Effects on Policy Making • The use of investigative reporting contributed to civic reforms in several areas. • Media publicity has been shown to help lawmakers achieve their goals and raise money toward reelection campaigns.

  20. Factors Influencing Media Effects • Individual characteristics influence: • Party preferences • Personal images or evaluations of the news media • Personal motivations for particular gratifications • Information processing • The more attention a person gives to a story, the more the person learns from it.

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