Media effects on political disengagement revisited: A multiple-media approach

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Volumn 82, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 416-433

  Lee, Tien Tsung ^a  

^a WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

MEDIA ROLE; POLITICAL PARTICIPATION;

NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES; WESTERN HEMISPHERE; WORLD;

EID: 24044472725     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900508200211     Document Type: Review

References (116)

1. E.g., Thomas E. Patterson, The Vanishing Voter: Public Involvement in an Age of Uncertainty (NY: Vintage Books, 2003);
2. Thomas E. Patterson, Out of Order (NY: Vintage Books, 1994);
3. James Fallows, Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy (NY: Pantheon, 1996);
4. Larry J. Sabato, Feeding Frenzy: How Attack Journalism Has Transformed American Politics (NY: Free Press, 1993).
5. E.g., Bruce E. Pinkleton, Erica Weintraub Austin, and Kristine K. J. Fortman, "Relationships of Media Use and Political Disaffection to Political Efficacy and Voting Behavior," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 42 (winter 1998): 34-49;
6. Bruce E. Pinkleton and Erica Weintraub Austin, "Individual Motivations, Perceived Media Importance, and Political Disaffection," Political Communication 18 (July-September 2001): 321-34;
7. Karin Gwinn Wilkins, "The Role of Media in Public Disengagement from Political Life," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 44 (fall 2000): 569-80.
8. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "Public's News Habits Little Changed by September 11," 9 June 2002 (28 March 2004), ;
9. Allison Romano, "February Heated up for Cable News," Broadcasting & Cable, 3 March 2003, 20;
10. Michele Greppi, "Fox News Still Tops the Heap," Television Week, 7 July 2003, 9.
11. Patterson, The Vanishing Voter;
12. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Retrieval of American Community (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000).
13. Priscilla L. Southwell, "Alienation and Nonvoting in the United States: A Refined Operationalization," Western Political Quarterly 38 (December 1985): 663-74;
14. Kevin Chen, Political Alienation and Voting Turnout in the United States, 1960-1988 (San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press, 1992);
15. Diana C. Mutz, "Political Alienation and Knowledge Acquisition," Communication Yearbook 10 (1987): 470-98.
16. Erica Weintraub Austin and Bruce E. Pinkleton, "Positive and Negative Effects of Political Disaffection on the Less Experienced Voter," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 39 (spring 1995): 215-35;
17. Pinkleton, Austin, and Fortman, "Relationships of Media Use and Political Disaffection to Political Efficacy and Voting Behavior";
18. Wilkins, "The Role of Media";
19. Karin Gwinn Wilkins, "Gender, News Media Exposure and Political Cynicism: Public Opinion of Hong Kong's Future Transition," International Journal of Public Opinion 7 (fall 1995): 253-69;
20. Patricia Moy and Dietram A. Scheufele, "Media Effects on Political and Social Trust," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 77 (winter 2000): 744-59;
21. Patricia Moy and Michael Pfau, With Malice toward All? The Media and Public Confidence in Democratic Institutions (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000);
22. Patricia Moy, Michael Pfau, and LeeAnn Kahlor, "Media Use and Public Confidence in Democratic Institutions," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 43 (spring 1999): 137-58;
23. Lawrence Bowen, Keith Stamm, and Fiona Clark, "Television Reliance and Political Malaise: A Contingency Analysis," Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 44 (winter 2000): 1-15;
24. Joseph N. Capella and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Spiral of Cynicism: The Press and the Public Good (NY: Oxford University Press, 1997);
25. Michael Robinson, "Public Affairs Television and the Growth of Political Malaise: The Case of the 'Selling of the Pentagon,'" American Political Science Review 70 (June 1976): 409-431;
26. Garrett J. O'Keefe and Harold Mendelsohn, "Nonvoting: The Media's Role," in Deviance and Mass Media, ed. Charles Winick (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage), 263-86.
27. Capella and Jamieson, Spiral of Cynicism;
28. Wilkins, "The Role of Media."
29. Patterson, The Vanishing Voter;
30. Patterson, Out of Order;
31. Fallows, Breaking the News;
32. Sabato, Feeding Frenzy;
33. Stephen Absolabehere and Shanto Iyengar, Going Negative: How Attack Ads Shrink and Polarize the Electorate (NY: Free Press, 1995);
34. Lynda Lee Kaid, "Effects of the Television Spots on Images of Dole and Clinton," The American Behavioral Scientist 40 (August 1997): 1085-1094;
35. John C. Tedesco, "Televised Political Adverstising Effects: Evaluating Presponses during the 2000 Robb-Allen Senatorial Election," Journal of Advertising 31 (spring 2002): 37-48.
36. Pinkleton, Autsin, and Fortman, "Relationships of Media Use and Political Disaffection to Political Efficacy and Voting Behavior"
37. Pinkleton and Austin, "Individual Motivations";
38. Wilkins, "The Role of Media";
39. Glenn Lesher and Michael L. McKean, "Using TV News for Political Information during An Off-year Election: Effects on Political Knowledge and Cynicism," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 74 (spring 1997): 69-83;
40. Dan Drew and David Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1988 Presidential Election: Did the Debates and the Media Matter?" Journalism Quarterly 68 (spring/summer 1991): 27-37;
41. David Weaver and Dan Drew, "Voter Learning in the 1992 Presidential Election: Did the 'Nontraditional' Media and Debates Matter?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 72 (spring 1995): 7-17;
42. Dan Drew and David Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1996 Presidential Election: Did the Media Matter?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75 (summer 1998): 292-301;
43. David Weaver and and Dan Drew, "Voter Learning and Interest in the 2000 Presidential Ellection: Did the Media Matter?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 78 (winter 2001): 787-98;
44. Pippa Norris, A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies (NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
45. Garrett O'Keefe, " Political Malaise and Reliance on Media," Jurnalism Quarterly 57 (spring 1980): 122-28;
46. Weaver and Drew, "Voter Learning in the 1992 Presidential Election";
47. Drew and Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1996 Presidential Election." One example of the media's conflicting effects at different times is that, according to the two studies by Weaver and Drew cited in this endnote, newspaper attention was significant predictor of voting likelihood in 1996, but not in 1992.
48. Austin and Pinkleton, "Positive and Negative Effects";
49. Bowen, Stamm, and Clark, "Television Reliance and Political Malaise";
50. Norris, A Virtuous Circle;
51. Pinkleton, Austin, and Fortman, "Relationships of Media Use and Political Disaffection to Political Efficacy and Voting Behavior."
52. Leshner and McKean, "Using TV News";
53. Jack M. McLeod, Katie Daily, William P. Eveland Jr., Zhongshi Guo, Katy Culver, David Kurpius, Patricia Moy, Edward Horowitz, and Mengbai Zhong, "The Synthetic Crisis: Media Influences on Perceptions of Crime" (paper presented at the annual meeting of AEJMC, Washington, DC, 1995);
54. Lee B. Becker and D. Charles Whitney, "Effects of Media Dependencies: Audience Assessment of Government," Communication Research 7 (January 1980): 95-120;
55. Bowen, Stamm, and Clark, "Television Reliance and Political Malaise";
56. Wilkins, "Gender, News Media Exposure";
57. Wilkins, "The Role of Media."
58. Moy and Pfau, With Malice toward All?;
59. Barry A. Hollander, "Talk Radio: Predictors of Use and Effects on Attitudes about Government," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 73 (spring 1996): 102-113.
60. Moy and Scheufele, "Media Effects on Political and Social Trust";
61. GangHeong Lee, Joseph N. Cappella, and Brian Southwell, "The Effects of News and Entertainment on Interpersonal Trust: Political Talk Radio, Newspapers, and Television," Mass Communication and Society 6 (fall 2003): 413-34.
62. For example, Moy and Scheufele, "Media Effects on Political and Social Trust";
63. Moy and Pfau, With Malice toward All?;
64. Moy, Pfau, and Kahlor, "Media Use and Public Confidence";
65. Weaver and Drew, "Voter Learning in the 1992 Presidential Election."
66. Curtis Wilkie, "A 'Southern Strategy' for Democrats Winning without the Religious Right," Boston Globe, 9 February 2004, sec. H, p. 12;
67. Rob Bobston, "Preachers, Politics and Campaign 2000," Church & State, September 2000,8-12;
68. Ruth Murray Brown, For A "Christian American": A History of the Religious Right (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2002).
69. Romano, "February Heated up for Cable News";
70. Greppi, "Fox News Still Tops the Heap."
71. National Election Studies (n.d.), (28 March 2004), .
72. Pew Center, "Public's News Habits."
73. Moy and Scheufele, 2:Media Effects on Political and Social Trust."
74. Steve Jarvis, "CMOR Finds Survey Refusal Rate Still Rising," Marketing News, 4 February 2002, 4;
75. Charlotte G. Steeh, "Trends in Nonresponse Rates, 1951-1979," Public Opinion Quarterly 45 (spring 1981): 40-57;
76. Pinkleton and Austin, "Individual Motivations";
77. Kim Sheehan, "E-mail Survey Response Rates: A Review," Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 6 (January 2001), (30 March 2004), .
78. Scott Keefer, Carolyn Miller, Andrew Kohut, Robert M. Groves, and Stanley Presser, "Consequences of Reducing Nonresponse in a National Telephone Survey," Public Opinion Quarterly 64 (summer 2000): 125-48.
79. Pinkleton and Austin, "Individual Motivations";
80. Pinkleton, Austin, and Fortman, "Relationships of Media Use and Political Disaffection to Political Efficacy and Voting Behavior."
81. National Election Studies, ;
82. Moy and Pfau, With Malice toward All?;
83. Pinkleton and Austin, "Individual Motivations";
84. Pinkleton, Austin, and Fortman, "Relationships of Media Use and Political Disaffection to Political Efficacy and Voting Behavior."
85. Pinkleton and Austin, "Individual Motivations";
86. Pinkleton, Austin, and Fortman, "Relationships of Media Use and Political Disaffection to Political Efficacy and Voting Behavior."
87. E.g., Bowen, Stamm, and Clark, "Television Reliance and Political Malaise";
88. Moy, Pfau, and Kahlor, "Media Use and Public Confidence";
89. Pinkleton and Austin, "Individual Motivations";
90. Wilkins, "Gender, News Media Exposure,"
91. Pinkleton and Austin, "Individual Motivations." While many studies measurre media exposure (usage) and attention, these two authors argue that media importance is a good substitute for media attention because the former may "reduce the potential for social response bias" (p. 328). Therfore, even though importance is attitudinal rather than behavioral, reliance in the present study includes both exposure and importance.
92. This approach is adopted from existing communication literature. For example, Erica Weintraub Austin, Bruce E. Pinkleton, and Yuki Fujioka, "The Role of Interpretation Processes and Parental Discussion in the Media's Effects on Adolescents' Use of Alcohol," Pediatrics 105 (February 2000): 343-49;
93. Pinkleton and Austin, "Individual Motivations."
94. Drew and Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1988 Presidential Election";
95. Drew and Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1992 Presidential Election";
96. Drew and Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1996 Presidential Election";
97. Weaver and Drew, "Voter Learning and Interest in the 2000 Presedential Election";
98. Norris, A Virtuous Circle.
99. Robinson, Public Affairs Television";
100. O'Keefe and Mendelsohn, "Nonvoting,"
101. The GOP controlled both the House and White House in 2002. The Republican Party became the majority in the Senate in early 2003 after winning un the mid-term ellection. David Von Drehle, "GOP Victory's Ripplesd Spread; Gephardt to Quit as Minority Leader; Democratic Presidential Aspirants Scramble," Washington Post, 2 November 2002, sec. A, p. 1.
102. Bowen, Stamm, and Clark, "Television Reliance and Political MAlaise";
103. Patterson, Out of Order.
104. Lynda Lee Kaid, "Effects of Political Information in the 2000 Presedential Campagne: Comparing Traditional Media and Internet Exposure," The American Bahavioral Scientist 46 (January 2003): 677-91.
105. E.g., Moy and Scheufele, "Media Effects on Political and Social Trust";
106. Lee, Cappella, and Southwell, "The Effects of News and an Entertainment";
107. Weaver and Drew, "Voter Learning and Interest in the 2000 Presidential Election."
108. E.g., Robinson, "Public Affairs Television";
109. O'Keefe and Mendelsohn, "Nonvoting";
110. Weave and Drew, "Voter Learning in the 1992 Presedential Election."
111. E.g., Bowen, Stamm, and Clark, "Television Reliance and Political Malaise";
112. Drew and Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1996 Presidential Election";
113. Pinkleton and Austin, Individual Motivations";
114. and Wilkins, "Gender, News Media Exposure."
115. For example, in "Public Affairs Television," Robinson has argued that audience characteristics are one of the explanations for television's malaise effect. Basically, according to Robinson, those who heavily rely on TV rather than other media tend to be less educated and have a lower income, and thus are more vulnerable to TV's negative effects.
116. Robert J. Samuelson, "Picking Sides for the News," Newsweek, 28 June 2004, 37.