Suchergebnisse

Conspiracy theories are woven into America's social and political fabric. While such beliefs help some individuals organize their political world, their popularity also raise concerns about the health of a democracy when those governed also suspect powerful forces work against their interests. The research here examines national survey data to demonstrate such beliefs have both partisan and individual difference explanations. Generic news media exposure offers little explanatory power, but exposure to Fox News programming predicts greater belief in theories critical of Democrats.

People tend to predict their preferred political candidate will win an election. The resulting "surprised losers" are examined as playing a role in the established gap between electoral winners and losers on such important outcomes as trust in government and satisfaction with the electoral process and democracy. Exposure to Fox News programming can increase wishful thinking among Republican candidate supporters, but among surprised losers, it does not increase negative attitudes.

The fragmentation of the mass media audience has led scholars to examine the growing partisanship of news consumers as less partisan individuals turn to more entertainment-oriented fare. An analysis of national survey data from 1998 to 2006 suggests that not only has the news audience grown somewhat more partisan over time, but among these partisans a distinct migration has occurred to sources more likely to be friendly to individual political beliefs or away from sources perceived as less friendly.

Early studies portrayed the talk radio listener, and the caller in particular, as more alienated and less politically and socially active. The research here, using national survey data, finds that the portrait of the talk radio audience has changed to one more positive in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and political participation. However, talk radio is also found to be associated with a number of negative political factors such as cynicism about government, lower perceptions of government's responsiveness to citizen needs, and more extreme attitudes. The differences between nonlisteners, listeners, and callers are discussed.

Nontraditional news coverage, the so-called new news, emerged as a major factor in the 1992 presidential campaign. Little is known, however, about whether attention to the political content of such programs informs the public or simply provides the perception of being informed. Analysis of survey data reveals that attention to MTV and late-night programs is either unrelated to or negatively impacts campaign knowledge. Attention to talk shows is positively related to knowledge. While respondents perceive themselves as being informed by talk shows, for the less educated such attention is unrelated to campaign knowledge.