Politicians Appearing in Talk Shows and Political CynicismAn experimental study to the effects of infotainment

Boukes, MarkBoomgaarden, Hajo G.

Amsterdam, 9th February 2012

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Content of this presentation

Infotainment / politicians in talk shows

Hypotheses

Method

Results

Discussion

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Infotainment

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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)

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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

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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

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Hypothesis II

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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

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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

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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)

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Koffiemax – Talk show

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AltijdWat – Current affairs

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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

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Results

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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

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Results II

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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

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Conclusion

Infotainment – in this case talk shows – not necessarily bad

Bridging function

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Thanks!

Questions or comments?

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Politicians Appearing in Talk Shows and Political CynicismAn experimental study to the effects of infotainment

Boukes, MarkBoomgaarden, Hajo G.

Amsterdam, 9th February 2012