The power of political talk: how and when it mobilizes politically efficacious citizens’ campaign activity during elections

Political communication scholarship has investigated the mobilization effect of citizens’ political discursive behaviors during elections. With the recent advent of SNSs Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in the political communication environment, citizens’ discursive behaviors on SNSs have received increasing academic attention. This study examines (1) whether offline political talk mediates the relationship between political self-efficacy and election campaign activity (a type of political participation); (2) whether its mediation effect differs from that of SNS political talk; and (3) how those mediation effects vary according to citizens’ endorsed political ideologies. The results reveal that the effects of both offline and SNS political talk are statistically significant among conservatives, liberals, and moderates. Interestingly, the mediation effect of SNS political talk was substantially larger among liberals than among conservatives or moderates (i.e. a moderated mediation effect), while the effect of offline political talk was consistent across all three ideological groups. This study demonstrates that the electoral mobilization effect of SNSs is ideology-dependent, and is particularly based on the mismatch between SNS users’ political ideology and the current government's political orientation. Implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.     

ACTUAL AND PERCEIVED U.S. PUBLIC OPINION: THE SPIRAL OF SILENCE DURING THE PERSIAN GULF WAR

This study analyzes actual and perceived support for the PersianGulf War in the United States. Data were collected from 292residents of New Castle County, Delaware, during the 1991 GulfWar. Results show that support for the war was not the strongconsensus reported in mainstream media. In fact, 53.1 percentof the respondents fell within the neutral, disagree, or stronglydisagree ranges of a support for the war scale. Only 6.6 percentof the respondents were in the strong support range. However,responses were significantly higher on an item measuring perceivedsupport for the war. Consistent with Noelle-Neumann's spiralof silence theory, perceived public support for the war wasa significant predictor of support for the war even after 13variables were controlled. The alternative explanation thatsubjects were ‘projecting’ their own perceptionsonto the public, is discounted by the finding that liberals,moderates and conservatives did not differ in their perceptionsof public support.     

The role of communication in the formation of an issue-based citizenry

Citizens can gain a better understanding of the important issues of a campaign and where candidates stand on those issues from three primary sources: direct candidate-to-citizen mass media messages (e.g., political advertisements, debates), news (e.g., newspapers, television news), or discussion with fellow citizens. The current study conducted a secondary analysis of 1996 American National Election Study (ANES) data to replicate Brians and Wattenberg's (1996) findings concerning the relative influence of political advertisements, television news use, and newspaper use on voter issue knowledge and salience in the 1992 United States presidential campaign. We also analyzed two additional communication information sources, general political discussion and debate viewing. The effects of political advertisement recall, television news viewing, and newspaper use replicated across election studies. General political discussion was found to affect both issue knowledge and salience, and when introduced into the regression analyses nullifies the predictive power of political advertisement recall for knowledge. Talk's influence on salience wanes in subsequent analyses. Viewing the first debate was a strong predictor of issue knowledge, but was not associated with issue salience. Advertisement recall maintained predictive power for issue salience even after taking into account the other four information sources, and watching the second debate also predicted salience. The combination of results presents evidence that candidate-to-citizen and citizen-to-citizen communication play unique roles in determining levels of issue knowledge and salience.     

Media Literacy Messages and Hostile Media Perceptions: Processing of Nonpartisan Versus Partisan Political Information

Partisans are poor judges of news content, rating neutral content as biased against their views (the hostile media perception) and forgiving biased content when it favors their side. This study tests whether a short news media literacy public service announcement (PSA) appearing before political programming can influence credibility and hostility ratings of the program and program host. Our findings suggest that a media literacy PSA can be effective, but its impact depends on the position of the news program and on the political ideology of the viewers. In this case, the media literacy PSA only influenced conservatives’ evaluations of the political program, improving perceptions of a neutral or congruent (conservative) host while further depressing ratings of an incongruent (liberal) host. Liberals’ evaluations of the program were unaffected by the PSA. Implications for media literacy messaging and information processing are discussed.     

Thriving in the Age of Accelerations: A Brief Look at the Societal Effects of Artificial Intelligence and the Opportunities for Libraries

Fifty years of the compounding effects of Moore's Law have led to enormous advances in computer processing power. Increased network speeds, the availability of big data, and machine learning techniques have accelerated the development of artificial intelligence; this promises to dramatically change many industries, including libraries. This article offers some thoughts on the effects of automation on employment, the social and political fallout, and the threats and opportunities for academic and public libraries.     

“And That’s a Fact!”: The Roles of Political Ideology,PSRs, and Perceived Source Credibility in Estimating Factual Content in Partisan News

Cable news schedule today is programed with a transition between objective reporting and subjective commentary. With this in mind, we address the question: to what extent does political ideology impact one’s estimation of factual content in the monologue of a partisan news host? Going beyond direct effects, we analyze two moderated mediation models, using news host as moderator and using parasocial relationship and source credibility as parallel mediators. Results show like-minded partisanship with a news host led to higher estimates of factual content, and this effect worked indirectly through credibility perceptions. Additionally, this process occurred more intensely for conservatives.     

Ideology and foreign news coverage: Propaganda model re‐examined

By comparing and contrasting the New York Times and Newsweek's coverage of the 1980 South Korean student demonstrations and the 1989 Chinese student demonstrations, this study set out to examine two important concepts of Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model: political ideology and national interest. While the original model did not address situations where both factors are present, and at the same time contradicting each other, it is the purpose of this study to test the applicability of the model in general, and to clear up this issue in particular. Dichotomous treatments of the two student movements were found in the New York Times and Newsweek's coverage. Important findings of this study further suggest that in a cold war context, ideology serves as a more important news factor than national interest in influencing the American media's foreign news coverage.     

Race and Gender as Peripheral Cues on Political Campaign Web Sites

This study examines the roles candidate race and gender may play in the evaluation of candidates presented via campaign Web sites. Apparent race and gender of a candidate were manipulated while issue information was held constant on a campaign Web site. The candidate's gender was shown to affect evaluations of the candidate (positively for female candidates) after controlling for participant political ideology, political knowledge, and political self-efficacy. The candidate's race did not affect evaluations of the candidate. Findings are discussed in the context of peripheral bias of central processing.     

Beyond Vox Pop: The Role of News Sourcing and Political Beliefs in Exemplification Effects

The people we see in news media can affect our perceptions of public opinion through exemplification. Although research shows that individuals interviewed in a news story can influence perceptions of public opinion, little attention has been paid to the role that source type and audience attitudes play in the exemplification process. This study tests how the exemplification process is influenced by different types of news sources featured in an article (e.g., vox pop, protester, and interest group interviews) and the audience's own political ideology. The study finds that the perceived typicality of sources is affected by both source type and how much an audience member agrees with the source. Source type is also found to directly affect perceptions of public opinion.     

Assessing Selective Exposure in Experiments: The Implications of Different Methodological Choices

Selective exposure has been studied for more than half a century, but little research has systematically analyzed the implications of various methodological choices inherent in these designs. We examine how four choices affect results in studies of selectivity in political contexts: including an entertainment option, including or excluding moderates, post-hoc adjustment of the subjects through a question about likelihood of selecting content in the real world, and assessing selectivity on the basis of issue attitudes or political ideology. Relying on a large experimental survey (N?=?2,300), we compare the effects of these choices on two results: probability of selective exposure to like-minded political news and predictors of selective exposure (attitude strength, political interest, knowledge, and participation). Our findings show that probability estimates and, to a lesser extent, predictors of selective exposure are sensitive to methodological choices. These findings provide guidance about how methodological choices may affect researchers’ assessments and conclusions.     

Rating Offensive Words in Three Television Program Contexts

Renewed attention to the use of expletives on television has been spurred by several recent high-profile on-air incidents. This study investigates which words television viewers find most offensive in varying contexts: broadcast TV, cable, and premium channels. Results show significant differences in perceived offensiveness of words depending on the context in which words are heard. Male and female respondents, liberals and conservatives, and religious and nonreligious respondents also differ in their perceptions of the offensiveness of words spoken in prime time.     

The prospect of civility in Indonesians' online polarized political discussions

This paper aims to investigate the level of civility of Indonesians' political discussions on Facebook. Civility, which has always been an important concept in online political discussion, is particularly significant when there is diversity of opinions and disputation. While previous studies have focused more upon factors such as anonymity's role and its relevance to civility, this paper proposes two further important factors: (1) diversity of opinion and disagreement in discussion and (2) the cultural context of the country and how it determines civility and politeness in online debate. Qualitative content analysis of Indonesians' political discussions on Facebook revealed that polarized political views and the people's politeness culture were two significant factors underpinning the high level of civility in political discussion.     

NPR Under Fire: On the Kategoria-Based Apologia of Juan Williams

In the wake of its decision to fire veteran political commentator Juan Williams, NPR came under fire from all quarters for its seemingly incongruous decision. Dubbed by conservatives as an unveiled attempt to remove Williams because of his professional role as commentator on the right-wing FOX news network, NPR was unprepared for the vitriolic outpouring of outrage from its listeners and critics. Finding itself under attack, NPR had little choice but to defend its decision and issue forth its own attack on William's work and character as a NPR political commentator. This monograph analyzes the apologetic exchange that ensued in the public arena, an exchange that created its own unique public relations challenges.     

When Oprah Intervenes: Political Correlates of Daytime Talk Show Viewing

This study examined the influence of daytime talk shows on opinion formation. Using agenda-setting and cultivation perspectives, it was hypothesized that both exposure to daytime talk shows and the apparent reality of these shows would be positively related to support for government involvement in social issues. In addition to exposure and apparent reality being positively related to levels of support, it was also found that both talk show exposure and respondent's reported perception of the apparent reality of television played a moderating role in the relationship between political ideology and support for government involvement in family issues. This study demonstrated that daytime talk shows can play a significant role in public opinion formation.     

News Media Landscape in a Fragile State: Professional Ethics Perceptions in a Post-Ba'athist Iraq

During the years of Ba'athist dictator Saddam Hussein, media personnel were under tight control and tortured or executed when they strayed from the government line. In the decade following the fall of the Ba'athist regime, thousands of Iraqi journalists were trained in liberal democratic professional norms, and hundreds of news outlets opened even as some of the old patronage practices and violence continued. This study utilized Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences model to examine factors influencing a proxy indicator for professional ethics, the value of conflict of interest avoidance among a purposive sample of Iraqi journalists (N = 588). We found that the news media routines and ideological levels, though not strong, had the greatest influences on this conflict of interest avoidance perception criterion indicator, the proxy for professional ethics. The findings suggest a tension between liberal democratic journalism training at the routines level and ideological aspects, in some cases, such as ethnic identity and political ideology. Strong influences on perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance were the type of media platform/Western journalism training, Arab ethnicity over Kurdish ethnicity, ideology of “democrat” over Kurdish nationalist or Islamist. No influence was apparent for Internet use frequency or state versus nonstate media.     

The rhetoric of political newscasting

Television has become the major source of news for most Americans. Therefore, it seems important to consider television's rhetorical potential to influence the public's understanding of political affairs. The purpose of this essay is to explore some of the ways television news reporting, documentaries and docu‐dramas may lead us to know and judge political events, political leadership and political institutions.     

Presidential rhetoric's visual turn: Performance fragments and the politics of illusionism

This essay explores the aesthetic and rhetorical implications of prudent and imprudent presidential performance fragments embodied in photo‐opportunities, thereby addressing presidential rhetoric's “visual turn. “Assembled as a critical rhetoric text, this essay posits that presidential performance fragments privilege the dominant ideology and its power relationships. In addition, this project argues that prudent presidential performances signal a chief executive's consubstantiality with the mythic presidency, centralized authority, and active political leadership. Imprudent photo‐opportunity performances, by contrast, impact negatively a president's image, agenda, credibility, and authority. The essay concludes with a discussion of how political images symbolically affect the citizenry and democratic processes, and advances foundational issues for the critic.     

Ideology and Public Trust in Radio as a Source for Local News

This study uses original survey data (N = 937) to examine trust in public radio and talk radio as sources for local news. Respondents expressed higher levels of trust in public radio than in talk radio. Trust in public radio was lower than trust in television but greater than trust in Internet sites, while trust in talk radio was lower than trust in television or newspapers. Compared to liberals, conservatives reported less trust in public radio but greater trust in talk radio. The relationships between ideology and trust were stronger among highly educated respondents than among the less educated.     

The pulpit in time of crisis: 1865 and 1963

Researchers have ignored the role of mass communication in the process of political socialization. Research on the media's influence in the election process stem from classical studies largely reported prior to the political use of television. Recent evidence suggests that mass communication may have direct effects on political behavior. Though the literature fails to resolve the question of media's influence in the election process, previous pronouncements of “limited effects” need to be re‐assessed. Suggested hypotheses for that assessment are presented.