The influence of talk radio on political efficacy and participation

Talk radio has emerged as a major political force in the past few years, but there is little systematic evidence on how talk shows may affect listeners. The author uses national survey data to investigate how talk radio exposure may influence two important aspects of a healthy democracy: political efficacy and participation. The author concludes that talk radio is unrelated to self‐efficacy, the belief of one's own competence to deal with public affairs. However, attention to talk radio leads to less system efficacy, the belief in the responsiveness of government institutions and officials. Finally, exposure is found to be strongly related to participating in a number of conventional political activities.     

Tweeting but not Talking: The Missing Element in Talk Radio's Institutional Use of Twitter

The interplay between Twitter and media organizations has been an increasing area of research. This article examines how talk radio stations have adopted Twitter at an institutional level, based on a comparative study of the official accounts of three prominent talk radio stations in Canada in 2010 and 2011. While talk radio is considered an interpersonal medium, our analysis shows the stations mainly use Twitter as a one-way medium to broadcast news updates, rather than to engage with audiences. Our findings suggest a divergence between institutional and individual social media practices, with official accounts as formal channels of communication.     

A Delphi Study on the Future of College Radio

A Delphi study of 13 college radio advisors in the United States was conducted by e-mail between October 2000 and March 2001. Panelists responded to a 24-item questionnaire over three rounds, eliciting opinions on the likelihood of various events occurring in the college radio industry during 5-; 10-, and 15-year periods. The final consensus suggested five dominant trends affecting college radio: (1) decreasing prestige of college radio advising within the college and university communities; (2) decreasing amount of direct institutional financial support for college radio; (3) an inexorable move toward digital production and transmission; (4) a changing composition of students participating in college radio; and (5) a continual reliance on locally produced alternative music and sports programming.     

How the Left Does Talk: A Fair and Balanced Examination of Air America Radio

Air America is a self-identified liberal radio talk show network initiated in the months before the 2004 U.S. presidential election. This article examines Air America's efforts to gain legitimacy in politically tense times as well as attract audience through its use of comic genres. The article explores how its grappling with fundamental questions of political truth versus lies shapes the form and content of its shows. The growing popularity of Web logs may also contribute to the continued existence of the shows: Air America illustrates the reciprocal influences of talk radio and blogs, as well as the roles of both in political interaction.     

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.     

广播夜谈节目的品牌内涵及其社会责任——以《伊甸园信箱》为例

本文以浙江电台文艺频道《伊甸园信箱》为例,分析广播夜谈节目的现状、特点及其影响,并对该节目的品牌内涵和社会责任进行探讨。     

关于我国高等院校辅导员队伍建设的深思

高等院校的辅导员对于大学生的培养起着至关重要的作用。在我国实行“科教兴国”的战略下,就不得不关注我国高校辅导员队伍建设的情况及其发展对策。本文先描述了我国高校辅导员的现状,再谈及高校辅导员应尽的工作任务与职责,最后论到高校辅导员应具备的政治素养与以身作则的精神风范。     

Reconceptualizing call‐in talk radio as listening

Scholars approach a particular phenomenon by their understanding of that phenomenon. In the case of call‐in talk radio, the research has focused primarily on callers and hosts as the active participants in the process. This paper reconsiders that research paradigm by offering a theory of talk radio based on the audience, the listeners. Using the work of Fiumara and Pearce, this study recognizes the centrality of listening to the communication process and reconceptualizes call‐in talk radio as an extended and continuous conversation. Finally, referring to new research, the study posits that the listener actively participates in constructing meaning from call‐in talk radio.     

The Role of Values in Predicting Talk Radio Listening: A Model of Value Equivalence

Nontraditional sources of news, such as talk radio and the Internet, complement and sometimes replace traditional mainstream news sources. Using discriminant function analysis, this study reveals the role of values in predicting listening to political talk and religious radio programs. A model using the construct of “value equivalence” explains value differences between user and media that may affect whether or not news from nontraditional sources will be sought and used. Research questions are answered using data from the 2004 Pew Research Center Biennial Consumption Survey. Using selected independent variables (including value-based variables) to predict listening to the Rush Limbaugh program, 59% of all cases in this study were correctly classified. Using the same set of value-based variables to predict listening to religious radio shows yielded nearly 74% correctly classified cases.     

Call-In Talk Radio: Compensation or Enrichment

This study focused on call-in talk radio because it provides a unique opportunity to test competing hypotheses drawn from two different perspectives about the appeal of media programming. A good deal of research on call-in talk radio grows from a deficiency perspective, which holds that people seek out media content to fill gaps in their lives. More recent research, however, suggests that, like the selection of other media content, the appeal of talk radio lies in enrichment, or its ability to provide content for specialized interests. A random telephone survey tested competing hypotheses that compared listeners to call-in talk radio with nonlisteners. For the most part, the results supported an enrichment explanation. Compared to nonlisteners, listeners to call-in talk radio listened to the programs for information, perceived themselves as more mobile, and valued arguments. Compared to nonlisteners, callers to the programs were also more civically engaged. Moreover, listening to various subformats of talk radio programs was also likely to signal enrichment.     

Putting out Fire with Gasoline: Testing the Gamson Hypothesis on Media Reliance and Political Activity

This study extends the Gamson Hypothesis, which asserts that trust and self-efficacy affect political activity, by examining how reliance on mainstream and alternative sources of political information interact with trust, self-efficacy, and political activity. Overall, this study supports the Gamson Hypothesis: Dissidents (those high in self-efficacy and low in political trust) are more likely to protest the government than Assureds (high levels of trust and efficacy), who are more likely to engage in more conventional political activities. Dissidents avoid online newspapers and broadcast news sites and instead turn to more polarizing sources, such as radio talk shows and political blogs. On the other hand, Assureds rely on mainstream sources such as broadcast television online and avoid more partisan sources such as political Web sites and talk radio.     

The talk radio phenomenon: An update

This article reviews talk radio research and summarizes articles from the trade and popular press that document the phenomenal growth in talk radio since 1987, when the Fairness Doctrine was abolished. Anecdotal evidence suggests that talk radio can have a powerful impact on public debate, especially regarding “hot button “ issues that arouse emotion and address voter frustration with the status quo. Examples include the successful defeat of the proposed Congressional pay raise in 1989 and the election to Congress of a Republican majority in 1994. Talk radio is less successful in rallying listeners on complex issues such as campaign financing reform.     

Quiz Show Radio News Formats: A Test of Retention,Involvement, Attention,and Perception of Credibility

Entertainment news formats, such as radio talk shows and late-night comedy shows, continue to gain audience interest, while traditional news formats are slowly losing audience members. This study examines audience effects from entertainment news formats by comparing retention, involvement, attention and perceived credibility of information presented in a traditional radio broadcast news format and a nontraditional news quiz show format. Findings showed audiences recalled information from quiz questions significantly better than from the traditional news form. Levels of attention and involvement did not differ, and there were no differences for perceived credibility, suggesting audiences may be increasingly accepting of new formats.     

From Coughlin to contemporary talk radio: Fallacies & propaganda in American populist radio

Talk radio has evolved into the town meeting of the 1990s. Talk radio's success comes from a combination of powerful personalities, audience involvement, and propagandistic appeals. Talk radio has become so powerful as to prompt the president of the United States to denounce many of its practitioners. Radio listeners need to understand how public figures use the media to manipulate the airwaves and their messages to influence the masses. This paper critically examines conservative talk radio figures using Father Charles Coughlin, the famous “radio priest” of the Shrine of the Little Flower, as the locus of comparison. The authors analyze the radio discourse of Coughlin, contemporary national figures such as Rush Limbaugh, and a Detroit‐area commentator, Mark Scott. Traditional propaganda analysis facilitates understanding of the rhetorical force of talk radio and enables the public to increase their awareness of and ability to deal with propaganda.     

Localism and All-Sports Radio

All-sports radio became a natural byproduct of the informational radio trend of the 1980s. It originated in New York and other large markets. Although it originated as a large market format, today there are dozens of sports radio stations on the air in markets large and small, with many major markets supporting more than one sports radio station. This article analyzes all-sports radio in a medium market, Peoria, Illinois, the 150th largest market in America. National sports networks provide an essential connection to big league sports in Peoria, but coverage of local sports is valuable in establishing a brand identity.     

“Shock” meets “community service”: J.C. Corcoran at KMOX

KMOX‐AM in St. Louis hired J.C. Corcoran to try to update its sound. Corcoran and KMOX represented two contrasting styles in talk radio— “shock”; and “community service.”; These styles can be seen as reflecting two visions of America—a modernist vision of civic discourse and public participation, and a postmodernist vision in which distinctions have blurred between the public and private spheres and between news and entertainment. The authors qualitatively examine the talk on a program hosted by a “shock jock”; on a respected news‐talk radio station.     

Public Radio Talk Show Hosts and Social Conflict: An Analysis of Self-Reported Roles During Debates and Discussion

By interviewing and thus gathering data from 10 prominent public radio talk show hosts as to how they perceive their tasks and actions during conflict-related debates and discussions, the authors were able to categorize these self-reflections in terms of the hosts' overall communicative, directive, and procedural strategies. This article reflects on the degree to which these activities define the overall roles of public radio talk show hosts and especially on whether these social actors perceive their moderating roles as a form of third party intervention similar to the work of facilitators or mediators of social conflict.     

Americans' Exposure to Political Talk Radio and Their Knowledge of Public Affairs

Talk radio could help citizens obtain information to make reasoned political judgments. The 7 996 and 7 998 National Election Studies show that exposure to talk radio is not significantly related to political knowledge when other social-psychological factors are controlled. The finding that listening is not significantly linked to political knowledge may be explained by the fact that only a third of the public listens to talk radio and that these programs are entertainment driven by economic forces.     

Contents and Effects of Newspaper Coverage of Talk Radio in Hong Kong: A Study of Remediation Through Content Adaptation

Media outlets and platforms in contemporary societies do not operate in isolation, but are interconnected with each other in various ways. The influence and significance of a medium can therefore depend on what Bolter and Grusin (1999 Bolter , J. D. , & Grusin , R. ( 1999 ). Remediation . Cambridge , MA : MIT Press . [Google Scholar]) labeled “remediation,” that is, the processes through which a medium is represented by other media. Content adaptation—the selective appropriation of the contents of another medium—is a specific means of remediation. This article applies these theoretical principles to the study of talk radio in Hong Kong. It examines how newspapers appropriate the contents of political talk radio and how content adaptation by the press affects people's perceptions of talk radio. Empirically, a content analysis shows that newspapers regularly cover talk radio contents, but the coverage is affected by the journalistic paradigms the newspapers adopt. Based on the content analysis, hypotheses about the relationships between news consumption, talk radio listening, and perceived value of talk radio are set up and tested by data from a representative survey (N = 862). The findings confirm the presence of “content adaptation effects.”     

Compressed speech by mnemonic joining: A negative implication for broadcasting

This study extended talk radio research to a developing nation setting. Results received from a Kingston, Jamaica sample of 268 adults, with access to 10 call‐in programs, supported the hypothesis that information and surveillance are the primary gratifications sought from call‐in radio programs in a developing nation. In contrast to U.S. results, reinforcement and companionship were less sought from talk radio listening. Lower socioeconomic status, lower educated, and higher isolated listeners were most apt to find gratification through a range of call‐in programs. These results indicate a potentially important role for call‐in radio in developing nations.