Auntie knows best? Public broadcasters and current affairs knowledge

British Journal of Political Science

Volumn 43, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 719-739

  Soroka, Stuart ^a   Andrew, Blake ^b   Aalberg, Toril ^c   Iyengar, Shanto ^d   Curran, James ^e   Coen, Sharon ^f   Hayashi, Kaori ^g   Jones, Paul ^h   Mazzoleni, Gianpetro ⁱ   Rhee, June Woong ^j   Rowe, David ^k   Tiffen, Rod ^l  

^a MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL   (Canada)

^c NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY   (Norway)

^d STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^e UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^f UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD   (United Kingdom)

^g UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO   (Japan)

^h UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES   (Australia)

ⁱ UNIVERSITY OF MILAN   (Italy)

^j Seoul National University   (South Korea)

^k UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY   (Australia)

^l UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

more..

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84888349280     PISSN: 00071234     EISSN: 14692112     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0007123412000555     Document Type: Article

References (109)

1. See, e.g., R. Lance Holbert, Nojin Kwak and Dhavan V. Shah, 'Environmental Concern, Patterns of Television Viewing, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Integrating Models of Media Consumption and Effects', Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47 (2003), 177-97
2. Stuart Soroka, 'Good News and Bad News: Asymmetric Responses to Economic Information', Journal of Politics, 68 (2006), 372-85.
3. See Chris Hanretty, 'Explaining the De Facto Independence of Public Broadcasters', British Journal of Political Science, 40 (2010), 75-89
4. Johannes Bardoel and Leen d'Haenens, 'Reinventing Public Service Broadcasting in Europe: Prospects, Promises and Problems', Media, Culture & Society, 30 (2008), 337-55
5. Sara Connolly and Shaun P. Hargreaves-Heap, 'Cross Country Differences in Trust in Television and the Governance of Public Broadcasters', Kyklos, 60 (2007), 3-14
6. Mijeong Baek, 'A Comparative Analysis of Political Communication Systems and Voter Turnout', American Journal of Political Science, 53 (2009), 376-93
7. Shanto Iyengar, James Curran, Anker Brink Lund, Inka Salovaara-Moring, Kyu S. Hahn and Sharon Coen, 'Cross-National versus Individual-Level Differences in Political Information: A Media Systems Perspective', Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 20 (2010), 291-309.
8. E.g. Matthew Hibberd, 'Conflicts of Interest and Media Pluralism in Italian Broadcasting', West European Politics, 30 (2007), 881-902
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10. Terry Flew, 'The Special Broadcasting Service after 30 Years: Public Service Media and New Ways of Thinking about Media and Citizenship', Media International Australia, 133 (2009), 9-14
11. Bernie Grummell, 'The Educational Character of Public Service Broadcasting: From Cultural Enrichment to Knowledge Society', European Journal of Communication, 24 (2009), 267-85.
12. E.g., Annie Lang, 'The Information Processing of Mediated Messages: A Framework for Communication Research', Journal of Communication, 50 (2000), 46-70.
13. Lance W. Bennett and Shanto Iyengar, 'A New Era of Minimal Effects: The Changing Foundations of Political Communication', Journal of Communication, 58 (2008), 707-31
14. Sendhil Mullainathan and Andrei Shleifer, 'The Market for News', American Economic Review, 95 (2005), 1031-53.
15. Pippa Norris, A Virtuous Circle? Political Communications in Post-Industrial Democracies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
16. Jesper Strömbäck and Adam Shehata, 'Media Malaise or a Virtuous Circle? Exploring the Causal Relationships Between News Media Exposure, Political News Attention and Political Interest', European Journal of Political Research, 49 (2010), 575-97
17. James Avery, 'Videomalaise or Virtuous Circle?', International Journal of Press/Politics, 14 (2009), 410-33
18. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick and Jingbo Meng, 'Reinforcement of the Political Self through Selective Exposure to Political Messages', Journal of Communication, 61 (2011), 349-68.
19. See online Appendix for further discussion of this point.
20. But not inconceivable, since news programming judged similar in content might still produce knowledge effects via presentation and/or framing differences from one newscast to another.
21. Jochen Peter, Edmund Lauf and Holli A. Semetko, 'Television Coverage of the 1999 European Parliamentary Elections', Political Communication, 21 (2004), 415-33
22. Toril Aalberg, Peter van Aelst and James Curran, 'Media Systems and the Political Information Environment: A Cross-National Comparison', International Journal of Press/Politics, 15 (2010), 255-71
23. Christian Kolmer and Holli A. Semetko, 'International Television News: Germany Compared', Journalism Studies, 11 (2010), 700-17.
24. See, for example, Matthew R. Kerbel, Apee Sumaiya and Marc Howard Ross, 'PBS Ain't So Different: Public Broadcasting, Election Frames, and Democratic Empowerment', Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 5 (2000), 8-32
25. Claes H. de Vreese, 'Election Coverage - New Directions for Public Broadcasting - The Netherlands and Beyond', European Journal of Communication,16. (2001), 155-80
26. William Hoynes, 'Political Discourse and the "New PBS" ', Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 7 (2002), 34-56
27. Peter Lunt, 'Television, Public Participation, and Public Service: From Value Consensus to the Politics of Identity', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 625 (2009), 128-38.
28. Mary Debrett, 'Riding the Wave: Public Service Television in the Multi-Platform Era', Media, Culture and Society, 31 (2009), 807-27
29. Håkon Larsen, 'Serving The Democracy: The Debate on Public Service Broadcasting in Norway and Sweden', Tidsskrift for Samfunnsforskning, 49 (2008), 313-42
30. Håkon Larsen, 'Legitimation Strategies of Public Service Broadcasters: The Divergent Rhetoric in Norway and Sweden', Media, Culture and Society, 32 (2010), 267-83
31. Kees Brant, 'Auditing Public Broadcasting Performance: Its Theory and Practice', Javnost, 10 (2003), 5-11
32. Bardoel and d'Haenens, 'Reinventing Public Service Broadcasting in Europe: Prospects, Promises and Problems'
33. Grummell, 'The Educational Character of Public Service Broadcasting: From Cultural Enrichment to Knowledge Society'.
34. Aalberg, Aelst and Curran, 'Media Systems and the Political Information Environment: A Cross-National Comparison'.
35. On inadvertent exposure, see Markus Prior, Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
36. Michael X. Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter, What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996)
37. Stephen Earl Bennett, Richard S. Flickinger, John R. Baker, Staci L. Rhine and Linda M.Bennett, 'Citizen's Knowledge of Foreign Affairs', Harvard International Journal of Press and Politics, 1 (1996), 1-29.
38. Doris A. Graber, Processing Politics: Learning from Television in the Internet Age (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
39. Michael Xenos and Patricia Moy, 'Direct and Differential Effects of the Internet on Political and Civic Engagement', Journal of Communication, 57 (2007), 704-18
40. Kajsa E. Dalrymple and Dietram A. Scheufele, 'Finally Informing the Electorate? How the Internet Got People Thinking about Presidential Politics in 2004', Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 12 (2007), 96-111
41. Shelley Boulianne, 'Stimulating or Reinforcing Political Interest: Using Panel Data to Examine Reciprocal Effects between News Media and Political Interest', Political Communication, 28 (2011), 147-62
42. Tom P. Bakker and Claes H. de Vreese, 'Good News for the Future? Young People, Internet Use, and Political Participation', Communication Research, 38 (2011), 451-70.
43. Of course, the impact of one medium versus that of another may have less to do with the medium itself than with the content of that medium. Knowledge effects resulting from selecting newspapers instead of television newscasts are likely to be due to the tendency for newspapers to print more relevant news for the task of answering the knowledge indicators. In this way, findings on newspapers versus television may not be very different from research focused on differences between public and commercial news programmes.
44. Anders Todal Jenssen, 'Does Public Broadcasting Make a Difference? Political Knowledge and Electoral Campaigns on Television', Scandinavian Political Studies, 32 (2009), 247-71.
45. Claes H. de Vreese and Hajo Boomgaarden, 'News, Political Knowledge and Participation: The Differential Effects of News Media Exposure on Political Knowledge and Participation', Acta Politica, 41. (2006), 317-41.
46. Kees Aarts and Holli A. Semetko, 'The Dividend Electorate: Media Use and Political Involvement', Journal of Politics, 65 (2003), 759-84.
47. Christina Holtz-Bacha and Pippa Norris, 'To Entertain, Inform, and Educate: Still the Role of Public Television', Political Communication, 18 (2001), 123-40
48. Gabor Toka and Marina Popescu, 'Public Television, Private Television and Citizens' Political Knowledge', EUI Working Papers RSCASS (2009)
49. Andres Todal Jenssen, Toril Aalberg and Kees Aarts, 'Informed Citizens, Media Use, and Public Knowledge of Parties Policy Positions', in Toril Aalberg and James Curran, eds, How Media Inform Democracy. A Comparative Approach (New York: Routledge, 2012, pp. 138-58.
50. Holtz-Bacha and Norris, 'To Entertain, Inform, and Educate'.
51. Toka and Popescu, 'Public Television, Private Television and Citizens' Political Knowledge'.
52. See also: Mijeong Baek, 'A Comparative Analysis of Political Communication Systems and Voter Turnout'
53. Shanto Iyengar, Kyu S. Hahn, Heinz Bonfadelli and Mirko Marr, '"Dark Areas of Ignorance" Revisited: Comparing International Affairs Knowledge in Switzerland and the United States', Communication Research, 36 (2009), 341-58
54. James Curran, Shanto Iyengar, Anker Brink Lund and Inka Salovaara-Moring, 'Media Systems, Public Knowledge and Democracy: A Comparative Study', European Journal of Communication, 24 (2009), 5-26
55. James Curran, Inka Salovaara-Moring, Sharon Coen and Shanto Iyengar, 'Crime Foreigners and Hard News: A Cross-National Comparison of Reporting and Public Perception', Journalism, 11 (2010), 1-17.
56. Aalberg, Aelst and Curran, 'Media Systems and the Political Information Environment'.
57. It is important to note that the Aalberg et al. study does not find evidence of cross-national news supply convergence over the past thirty years. If anything, the opposite trend is occurring: that is, the amount of news programming offered (and consumed) in commercialized versus publicly-oriented systems is diverging if we focus on peak viewing hours and audience share.
58. Though note that we should be careful not to blend individual-level and country-level hypotheses. Within countries, exposure to public broadcasting may be associated with higher levels of current affairs knowledge. But across countries, the existence of PSBs may or may not be associated with the provision of (and knowledge of) current affairs news. A strong PSB may increase the volume of current affairs information available on its own; it may encourage private broadcasters in the same market to present similar types of information; and/or it may encourage private broadcasters to do exactly the opposite - to focus exclusively on soft news and entertainment since the PSB takes care of the rest. The 'net' effect on the availability of hard news, in short, is not clear; nor is the connection between PSBs and aggregate-level knowledge across countries. See also a related discussion in the conclusions.
59. Toril Aalberg and James Curran, 'Main Conclusions', in Toril Aalberg and James Curran, eds, How Media Inform Democracy: A Comparative Approach (New York: Routledge, 2012), pp. 189-99.
60. Curran et al., 'Crime Foreigners and Hard News'
61. Curran et al., 'News Content, Media Consumption, and Current Affairs Knowledge', in Aalberg and Curran, How Media Inform Democracy.
62. Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini, Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
63. Iyengar et al., '"Dark Areas of Ignorance" Revisited'.
64. Three of those countries - Greece, Columbia and India - are not included here due to differences in survey methodology and data availability.
65. See, for instance, Russell W. Neuman, Marion R. Just and Ann N. Crigler, Common Knowledge: News and the Construction of Political Meaning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
66. The classic explications are Donald B. Rubin, 'Matching to Remove Bias in Observational Studies', Biometrics, 29 (1973), 153-83
67. Donald B. Rubin, 'Estimating Causal Effects to Treatments in Randomized and Nonrandomized Studies', Journal of Educational Psychology, 66 (1974), 688-701
68. Paul R. Rosenbaum and Donald B. Rubin, 'The Central Role of the Propensity Score in Observational Studies for Causal Effects', Biometrika, 70 (1983), 41-50
69. Paul R. Rosenbaum and Donald B. Rubin, 'The Bias due to Incomplete Matching', Biometrics, 41 (1985), 103-16.
70. Note, then, that unmatched individuals are dropped from matching analyses. This is of course one of the major differences between matching and more traditional approaches.
71. For more thorough accounts of these issues, see, e.g., James J. Heckman, Hidehiko Ichimura and Petra E. Todd, 'Matching as an Econometric Evluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme', Review of Economic Studies, 64 (1997), 605-54
72. Dan A. Black and Jeffrey A. Smith, 'How Robust Is the Evidence on the Effects of College Quality? Evidence from Matching', Journal of Econometrics, 121 (2004), 99-124
73. Charles Michalopoulos, Howard S. Bloom and Carolyn J. Hill, 'Can Propensity-Score Methods Match the Findings from a Random Assignment Evaluation of Mandatory Welfare-to-Work Programs?' Review of Economics and Statistics, 86 (2004), 156-79
74. Jeffrey Smith and Petra Todd, 'Does Matching Overcome LaLonde's Critique of Nonexperimental Methods?' Journal of Econometrics, 125 (2005), 305-53
75. Kevin Arceneaux, Alan S. Gerber and Donald P. Green, 'Comparing Experimental and Matching Methods Using a Large-Scale Voter Mobilization experiment', Political Analysis, 14 (2006), 37-62.
76. For a similar approach, see Matthew S. Levendusky, 'Rethinking the Role of Political Information', Public Opinion Quarterly, 75 (2011), 42-64.
77. Those advantages are discussed in some detail elsewhere; see fnn. 34 and 35, as well as the online appendix. And note that in this case, just to be sure, all the results reported below were replicated using a more traditional regression approach. Results are very similar, though with a somewhat larger effect for media exposure. This is in line with the expectation that proximity matching would yield somewhat more conservative estimates; but our focus here is not to test the relative merits of proximity matching, but rather the impact of public versus private broadcasting on knowledge, and in this regard the differences across media and across countries are very similar using either approach.
78. Sascha O. Becker and Andrea Ichino, 'Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Based on Propensity Scores', Stata Journal, 2 (2002), 358-77.
79. For a particularly useful discussion, see Marco Caliendo and Sabine Kopeinig, 'Some Practical Guidance for the Implementation of Propensity Score Matching' (IZA Discussion Paper No. 1588, 2005).
80. Rajeev H. Dehejia and Sadek Wahba, 'Causal Effects in Nonexperimental Studies: Reevaluation of the Evaluation of Training Program', Journal of the American Statistical Association, 94 (1999), 1053-62.
81. Additional results are available upon request.
82. Age is divided into groups, rather than used in its raw, interval-level form, in order to achieve balance for the matching procedure. That said, results do not change when the interval-level measure of age is used as a control in an OLS regression.
83. Indeed, for recent work exploring variations across countries in the individual-level predictors of news consumption, see Adam Shehata and Jesper Strömbäck, 'A Matter of Context: A Comparative Study of Media Environments and News Consumption Gaps in Europe', Political Communication, 28 (2011), 110-34
84. Arild Blekesaune, Eiri Elvestad and Toril Aalberg, 'Tuning out the World of News and Current Affairs', European Sociological Review, 28(2010), 110-26.
85. See online appendix for complete results.
86. Established in 1982, Channel 4 was Britain's second commercial broadcaster, though it was not exclusively commercial - rather, it reflected (and continues to reflect) a compromise between public-service and commercial approaches. It is publicly owned, and largely commercially funded; at the same time, it has a remit of public service obligations and is regulated by the Office of Communications (Ofcom).
87. Note that the negative coefficient for ITV news is a little peculiar. We might expect private news to not contribute to knowledge; to actually reduce knowledge is another matter. That said, the impact is not implausible: exposure to private television content may distract enough from current affairs information gleaned elsewhere that viewers know less about current affairs than they would had they not spent so much time on ITV. Of course, this may also be partly a product of self-selection - those who know less about current affairs continue to know less by watching ITV.
88. All financial information applies to the 2010 fiscal year (ending 31 March 2011) and is sourced from Annual Reports published online by each broadcaster.
89. Note that we do not distinguish between public monies derived from licence fees versus parliamentary appropriation. Though we might expect that those broadcasters reliant on compulsory, universal licence fees would be most inclined to air content with broad appeal (i.e., something for everyone/audience-driven); and parliamentary appropriation may be the funding model best suited for public broadcasters to act as 'market failure broadcasters' - filling gaps in programming created by entertainment-driven commercial media. This is purely conjecture at this stage, however.
90. Here, audience share is proportion of total television viewing, on average, for each hour of prime time. Note that we include all channels available from the main public broadcaster in each country. Thus in Britain, for instance, audience share is the combined share for BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and so forth. Note also that the standard definition of prime time varies somewhat by country, but ranges from a minimum of 18:00 to a maximum of 23:00. Audience numbers are current (2010 and 2011), as reported in the Annual Report of each broadcaster and which frequently appear in press reports within in each country. Media use is typically measured by private, independent firms such as BBM Canada, Auditel Italy, BARD UK, and Gallup Norway.
91. Iyengar et al., 'Cross-National versus Individual-Level Differences in Political Information'
92. Curran et al., 'Media Systems, Public Knowledge and Democracy'.
93. see Hanretty, 'Explaining the De Facto Independence of Public Broadcasters'
94. also Chris Hanretty, Public Broadcasting and Political Interference (London: Routledge, 2011).
95. Note, the de jure independence statistic for RAI corresponds with 2005 broadcasting legislation in Italy. It is possible that the impact of the Gasparri Law on RAI, enacted in the spring of 2004, is not fully captured by this statistic.
96. Tove Brekken, Kjersti Thorbjørnsrud and Toril Aalberg, 'News Substance: The Relative Importance of Soft and De-contextualized News', in Toril Aalberg and James Curran, eds, How Media Inform Democracy: A Comparative Approach (New York: Routledge, 2012), pp. 64-78.
97. James T. Hamilton, 'The (Many) Markets for International News: How News from Abroad Sells at Home', Journalism Studies, 11 (2010), 650-66.
98. Philip M. Napoli, 'Market Conditions and Public Affairs Programming: Implications for Digital Television Policy', Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 6 (2001), 15-29.
99. Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols, The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that will Begin the World Again (Philadelphia: Nation Books, 2010).
100. In Norway and Britain, for instance, television viewing has about twice the impact of newspaper consumption on what people know about the world.
101. Devra C. Moehler and Naunihal Singh. 'Whose News Do You Trust? Explaining Trust in Private versus Public Media in Africa', Political Research Quarterly, 64 (2011), 276-92.
102. Recall also that knowledge variance between disadvantaged and advantaged groups is directly related to the broadcasting model. Disadvantaged groups in the United States perform especially poorly on knowledge indicators which suggests that gaps between groups will grow as media systems become more commercialized and/or if PSBs weaken.
103. E.g. Petros Iosifidis, Public Television in Europe: Technological Challenges and New Strategies (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
104. Emily Seymour and Steven Barnett, 'Factual International Programming on UK Public Service Television, 2005' (London: Communication Research Unit, University of Westminster, 2006)
105. Brian Winston, 'Towards Tabloidization? Glasgow Revisited, 1975-2001', Journalism Studies, 3 (2002), 5-20.
106. Michael Tracey, The Decline and Fall of Public Service Broadcasting (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
107. Chris Hanretty, Public Broadcasting's Continued Rude Health (London: British Academy Report, 2011).
108. Gavyn Davies, 'The BBC and Public Value', in Dieter Helm, Damian Green, Mark Oliver, Simon Terrington, Andrew Graham, Bill Robinson, Gavyn Davies, Jeremy Mayhew and Luke Bradley-Jones, eds, Can the Market Deliver? Funding Public Service Television in the Digital Age (New Barnet, Herts.: John Libbey, 2005), pp. 129-50
109. Andrew Graham and Gavyn Davies, Broadcasting, Society and Policy in the Multimedia Age (Luton: University of Luton Press, 2001).