Politicians Appearing in Talk Shows and Political CynicismAn experimental study to the effects of infotainment
Boukes, MarkBoomgaarden, Hajo G.
Amsterdam, 9th February 2012
2
3
Content of this presentation
Infotainment / politicians in talk shows
Hypotheses
Method
Results
Discussion
4
Infotainment
5
Infotainment
Changes in the relationship between media and politicians:
Interest of popular genres in politically relevant topics
Willingness of politicians
Popular genres and Politicians
Commericialization:Mixing information with entertainment as “a shift from programs in the public interest to programs the public is interested in” (Brants & Neijens, 1998, p. 150)
6
Politicians and Popular TV Programs
Political motivations (Baum, 2005):
Focus of program - personal issues, not critical interview
Audience of talk shows- Least politically interested and engaged
- Easier to persuade
7
Hypothesis I
Demobilization
People, exposed to an entertaining talk show program that
shows an interview with a politician, will have a higher level of
political cynicism, than those exposed to a serious current affairs
program that shows an interview with the same politician
- distracts from genuinely important issues
8
Hypothesis II
9
Bridging function
The effect of exposure to a certain television talk show versus a
similar current affairs program on peoples’ level of political
cynicism is moderated by people’s level of political knowledge
- those with less political knowledge barely see any political news
Method
10
Method: Experiment
Sample:
273 participants (Age: M = 30.6, SD = 12.2) and 57.1% female- Survey pool of the ASCoR- Among contacts of the researcher and his acquaintances- Advertisements in two local magazines and a news item on one local website.
- Participated from May 12 to June 1, 2011
11
Method: Experiment II
2 between-subjects (program genre: talk show vs. current
affairs program) factorial design with control group
Random assignment to videos with the same politician
Condition 1 (n = 71) : Talk show (KoffieMax)
Condition 2 (n = 80) : Current Affairs (AltijdWat)
12
Koffiemax – Talk show
13
AltijdWat – Current affairs
14
Method: Experiment III Dependent variable: Political cynicism
- A good and rather strong Mokken scale of 12 items: (H = .43; ρ = .89; M = 48.31, SD = 10.19)
What participants think about politicians in terms of
1) competency, 6) having lost contact with society,
2) being self-interested, 7) solving problems,
3) helping people, 8) speaking the truth,
4) reliability, 9) honesty,
5) wasting taxes, 10) nepotism, 11) keeping promises,
12) being interested in ordinary people’s opinions
15
Results
16
Results: Effects on political cynicism
Genre: Talk Show – versus – Current Affairs
ANCOVA 1: F(1, 139) = 1.65, p = .490, η2 = .00
No general effect of the genre which people saw
Moderation of political knowledge
ANCOVA 2: F(2, 136) = 3.86, p = .016, η2 = 0.06
Interaction effect between genre and knowledge
17
Results II
18
Unknowledgeable:
More cynical after
current affairs
Knowledgeable:
More cynical after
talk show
Discussion I
Explanation I:
No general effect, groups level off.
Explanation II:
Talk show: Campaign trick VS Nice to understand
Current Affairs: Accountable politicians VS Politicians live in their own world
19
Conclusion
Infotainment – in this case talk shows – not necessarily bad
Bridging function
20
Thanks!
Questions or comments?
21
Politicians Appearing in Talk Shows and Political CynicismAn experimental study to the effects of infotainment
Boukes, MarkBoomgaarden, Hajo G.
Amsterdam, 9th February 2012