Journalism & politics J201 Introduction to Mass Communication Nov 2 -2016

Professor Hernando Rojas hrojas@wisc.edu @uatiff 201.journalism.wisc.edu #sjmc201

Journalism & Politics- today’s class plan

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①  Is news coverage in the US biased in favor of one political party?

②  Is news coverage making people more extreme in their political views?

③  Is news coverage making people more cynical and detached from the political system?

Politics & Journalism – 2 Polarization

①  Because news tends to highlight conflict.

②  Cover politics like a “horse race.” What matters is who is ahead and not issues.

③  New media may create ideological cocoons.

Is the U S becoming more politically

polarized?

Political Polarization – class poll

“Emerging” media and polarization

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§  Deliberative potential of the Internet versus echo chambers (Sunstein)

§  Extreme views become more extreme §  Groups drift far away from each other

Adamic & Glance, 2004 !Smith, 2010 !

Political Polarization

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§  What is polarization? §  Increased issue extremity §  Political alignment §  Affective phenomena

Political Polarization – Issue extremity

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Political Polarization – Issue extremity

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Political Polarization – Political Alignment

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Political Polarization – Political Alignment

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Political Polarization – Political Alignment

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Political Polarization – Political Alignment

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Political Polarization – Affective polarization

Political Polarization

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§  To sum up: §  Increased issue extremity §  Political alignment §  Affective phenomena

Surveys in 10 countries (2010)

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Perceived political polarization

§  Perceived polarization as perceived distance between political parties.

Perceived political polarization

Party A ! Party B! Party C!

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Encourage development of

renewable energy sources !

Encourage off-shore drilling for

oil and gas !

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!NEWSPAPERS!

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TV NEWS!

RADIO NEWS!

INTERNET!

CANADA COLOMBIA GREECE INDIA ITALY JAPAN NORWAY S KOREA UK USA!

Perceived political polarization

Role of news

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§  To sum up: §  Unrelated to political extremity §  Increases perceived polarization

Politics & Journalism – 3 Media malaise hypothesis

Because of negativity in coverage does news foster political cynicism and make people less engaged?

Role of news

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§  News consumption: §  Increases political knowledge. §  Increases political efficacy. §  Increases political participation.

Questions

See you Friday…