Powerpoint V: Social influence in Politics Flashcards
What are two sources of influence that political media research focuses on?
- News (TV broadcasts, political forums)
- Political Advertising
What are 3 models for media effects?
- Direct Effects Model
- Limited Effects Model
- Powerful Effects Underlying Limiting Conditions Perspective
What perspective does the direct effects model take?
Hypodermic Perspective
–> perspective that the media has a pervasive, direct, and powerful influence
What is the main suggestion of the direct effects model?
Early on, anecdotal evidence suggested that powerful media exerted very direct and powerful effects on citizens’ political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours
What perspective does the limited effects model take?
the perspective that the media does not change people’s attitudes
What is the main suggestion of the limited effects model?
Research survey data suggested that the media has little impact but instead simply reinforces existing values and attitudes
The idea that political attitudes become polarized, but dont really change
What is the main idea of the powerful effects under limiting conditions perspective?
The idea that the media can have a powerful effect (change opinions) but only under certain conditions and often indirectly
What are the 4 news effects?
- Agenda Setting
- Issue Priming of Presidential Evaluations
- Issue Framing
- Persuasion
Agenda Setting Effect
The empirical finding that extensive news coverage of an issue enhances the extent to which that issue is seen as an important national issue
Does news coverage change people’s attitude about a political issue?
No, but it changes the extent to which they see the issue as important
Describe participants, task, and conditions of the Iyengar & Kinder (1987) Agenda Setting experiments
- Recruited everyday citizens or university students to attend a multi-session lab study
- Participants watched edited 30-minute news broadcasts each day over the course of a week
- Participants were randomly assigned to watch news broadcasts that were edited either: (a) to not include a story on the target issue or (b) to always include a story on the target issue
- Participants rated the national importance of different issues at the start of the study and at the end of the study
Results of the Iyengar & Kinder (1987) Agenda Setting experiments
- Analyses suggested that greater news exposure to the target issue increased importance ratings by an average of 8.4
Why is inflation the only issue that did not significantly increase in importance after greater news exposure to the issue?
Ceiling effect - no room to boost it up. Inflation was a big enough issue at the time.
According to the Iyengar & Kinder (1987) Agenda Setting experiments, when participants were given open-ended questions asking them to this the most important national problems, what did they do?
Average percentage listing the target problem as an important national issue was 57.0%, which is 19.7% more than the people in the no exposure condition.
Do Iyengar & Kinder’s findings about agenda setting effects hold true for single session exposure to multiple stories?
yes
Do Iyengar & Kinder’s findings about agenda setting effects hold true after one week?
Yes
Do Iyengar & Kinder’s findings about agenda setting effects hold true in naturalistic contexts?
Yes
Who is most susceptible to agenda setting effects?
- People with low education (especially if they identify with a political party)
- People with low interest and involvement in politicsc
2 potential explanations for agenda setting
- Issues Accessibility
- Relevance
How does issues accessibility explain for agenda setting?
The ease of retrieval determines importance
–> if you have to work hard to remember something, you may think it might not be that important
presumes people non-thoughtful
How does relevance explain for agenda setting?
accessibility alone is not sufficient to create agenda setting
People must evaluate if issue is relevant as a problem: using emotions and perceptions of importance to others
Miller (2007) Experiment (to explain for agenda setting effects) - stories on crime
- Series of experiments in which participants received (a) no news stories on crime, (b) a news story on rising crime, or (c) a news story on falling crime
Participants listed most important problems facing the country
Participants rated emotions felt while reading stories & perception of issue importance to other (politicians & reporters)
Finding:
- Exposure to either story produced increased listing of crime
- Rising crime story produced bigger increases than falling crime story
Do Miller’s (2007) results from his agenda setting experiments fit with the accessibility?
Exposure producing increased listing fits with the accessibility explanation
Rising crime story producing bigger increases than falling crime story fits with the relevance explanation but NOT the accessibility explanation
What is a second reason for the rising crime story producing bigger increases than falling crime story in Miller’s (2007) experiment?
Rising crime story mediated by negative emotions and (more weakly) by perceptions of importance to politicians –> RELEVANCE
Issue priming of presidential evaluations
Empirical finding that increased coverage of an issue enhances the extent to which performance on the issue is used as a basis for overall evaluations of a president
Does news coverage of an issue change peoples’ assessments of how a president is performing on that issue?
No
How does news coverage of an issue affect presidential evaluations?
News coverage of an issue can change the extent to which people use that issue as a basis for their overall evaluations of the president
Iyengar & Kinder (1987) issue priming of presidential evaluations experiments - explain the process, conditions, and results
Recruited everyday citizens or university students to attend a multisession lab study
Participants watched edited 30-minute news broadcasts each day over the course of a week
Participants were randomly assigned to watch news broadcasts that were edited to either (a) not include a story on the target issues or to (b) always include a story on the target issue
Had participants rate presidential performance on various issues and overall performance
Results:
- news exposure to target issues increased the extent to which performance on those issues was a basis for overall performance assessments
–> all except unemployment were significant (reasons unknown - maybe the issue was already super relevant at the time)
How does the impact of single session exposure to multiple stories compare to the effects found in Iyengar & Kinder (1987) issue priming of presidential evaluations experiments?
Effects are similar
Some studies have examined the effects of priming on perceptions of presidential competence and integrity. What do the results suggest?
The results suggest that issue priming weakly enhances the impact of issue performance on perceptions of confidence. Issue priming has an even weaker effect on integrity
How do priming effects alter presidential popularity?
Priming effects shift the extent to which different issues determine how a president is evaluated?
How do positive performance issues affect presidential popularity?
President be becomes more popular
How do negative performance issues affect popularity?
President becomes less popular
Krosnick et al. examined priming in naturalistic contexts and coded content of news broadcasts for mentioning which two major crises?
- Iran-contra Affair for Reagan
- First Gulf War for Bush
What were the main findings of Krosnick et al.’s examination of news broadcasts covering the Iran-Contra Affair?
- Increased coverage of Iran-Contra enhanced the impact of Reagan’s Central American policy performance on overall evaluations of presidential performance
–> lower presidential approval ratings
What were the main findings of Krosnick et al.’s examination of news broadcasts covering the first gulf war?
Increased coverage of the gulf crisis enhanced the impact of Bush’s performance on the gulf war on overall performance ratings
–> resulting in higher approval ratings
Why did Bush’s popularity decline in the election against Clinton?
Economy was the issue of focus, not military & national security
According to Miller & Korsnick, who is most susceptible to priming effects?
People with:
- High political knowledge
- Trust in media
Note: it is highest for people who have both high political knowledge and trust in media!
Why does being high in political knowledge make someone more susceptible to priming effects?
Because being high in political knowledge facilitates understanding, storage, and retrieval of information from news
Why does trust in media make someone more susceptible to priming effects?
Because trust in media will facilitate acceptance of information
Miller and Krosnick (2000) Issue priming experiment 1: understanding the factors that make people susceptible to issue priming of presidential evaluations. What were the results?
Exposure to stories on (a) illegal drugs, (b) immigration, or (c) control
Measured presidential performance on issues in general, political knowledge, and trust in media
Findings:
- Exposure to news stories increased perceived national importance of issue and increased reliance on that issue in presidential evaluations ONLY for participants high in knowledge AND media trust
- Perceived national importance mediated the effect of exposure on issue priming in this group
Miller and Krosnick (2000) Issue priming experiment 2: understanding the factors that make people susceptible to issue priming of presidential evaluations. What were the results?
Exposure to stories on (a) crime, (b) pollution, (c) unemployment, or (d) control
Measured presidential performance on issues in general, political knowledge, and trust in media
Findings
- Priming effect ONLY for participants high in knowledge AND media trust showed priming effect
- no evidence that accessibility of issues mediated this effect
Issue Framing Effect
Empirical finding that episodic versus thematic news stories can alter viewers’ beliefs regarding responsibility for problems facing the country
Episodic framing
Case study or event-oriented report that depicts public issues in terms of concrete instances
Thematic framing
Report that places the issue in a more general or abstract context thereby focusing more on general outcomes and conditions
Which type of framing is most common? (and for what types of issues)
Episodic framing –> for issues such as crime & terrorism
Iyengar et al. empirical investigation of issue framing effect (created “news broadcasts” from archives of news stories - 7 stories)
Recruited non-student adults for lab experiment
Each broadcast contained 7 stories, the 4th of which was the target stories
The target story was in (a) a thematic frame or (b) an episodic frame
Finding:
- People were more likely to list individual causes after exposure to episodic stories and societal causes after thematic stories
Episodic vs Thematic way of framing a story on terrorism
Episodic –> personal characteristics (crazy, cruel)
Thematic –> social conditions (political/economic inequality)
Episodic vs Thematic way of framing a story on criminal acts
Episodic –> personal traits (violent, dishonest)
Thematic –> social conditions (economic opportunities
Episodic vs Thematic way of framing a story on racial inequality
Episodic –> characteristics of the group (work ethic)
Thematic –> social conditions (prejudice)
Do attributions of responsibility influence assessments of presidential performance on the issues?
YES… also influence attitudes towards responses to the problem
Iyengar et al. issue framing - what were societal explanations of poverty associated with?
- lower approval ratings of Reagan’s performance on poverty
- More support for welfare spending and job programs
Iyengar et al. issue framing - what were societal explanations of crime associated with?
- lower approval ratings for Reagan’s performance on crime
- lower support for the death penalty
Iyengar et al. issue framing - what were societal explanations of terrorism associated with?
Less support of use of force in response to terrorism
What kind of effects can the news have through agenda setting, priming of presidential evaluations, and issue framing?
Indirect effects
In relation to news and persuasion, what did zaller argue? What perspective do his arguments represent?
- News can have direct effects on changing attitudes
- Conditions under which this occurs are often not satisfied
(powerful effects under limiting conditions perspective)
Past failures to find direct effects in survey data are a result of:
- A substantial portion of people do not regularly get exposed to the news –> unaffected
- The news often includes conflicting stories –> can’t find direct effects when there’s contradictory information
According to Zaller, what must happen for the news to create substantial shifts in attitude?
- People must be exposed to the news
- The news coverage must strongly favour one side
What are the 8 campaign advertising effects?
- Learning effects
- Agenda control
- Issue Ownership
- Riding-the-wave
- Attack ads & voter turnout
- Microtargeting
- Stealing thunder
- Push Polling
Which three campaign advertising effects have little or no evidence?
Agenda Control
Riding-the-wave
Push Polling
According to media critics, are campaigns effective at informing voters? Why or why not? (1)
No they are not effective because political advertising is said to be misleading
Learning effects (1)
The idea that, with news exposure, people become more knowledgeable about candidates’ issues and political ideology
Do people learning meaningful information throughout campaigns? (1)
yes!
When are knowledge gains especially high? (1)
during highly competitive political races
Agenda Control (2)
News coverage of issues can influence the perceived national importance of issues (agenda setting) and the use of these issues in candidate evaluations (priming)
How do political campaign organizations try to influence the impact of issues? (2)
By concentrating advertisements & other political communication on certain issues that they think will be advantageous
Detailed examination of Agenda Control by Johnson et al. (1992) - Free Trade
- conducted analyses of surveys related to the 1988 Canadian election
- finding: political candidates’ communications in this election played an important role in making the Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) the dominant issue in voters evaluations
Overall conclusion: campaigns can cause shifts in evaluations
Issue-Ownership Hypothesis (3)
Candidates advertising and other communications are most effective when they focus on an issue over which that candidate is seen as having “ownership” by virtue of his or her social group membership
What are two reasons issue ownership effects may occur? (3)
- Confirmatory bias –> biased processing of messages
- Source credibility –> simple non-thoughtful heuristic
What issues are democrats seen as having “ownership” of? (3)
Unemployment
Social Welfare
Civil Rights
What issues are republicans seen as having “ownership” of? (3)
Crime
Taxes
National surcity
What gives this perceived “ownership” power? (3)
Belief that it is true
Is issue ownership constant? (3)
No, it can shift over time
News coverage of elections X Issue ownership (3)
during news coverage of elections, major media outlets tend to focus their coverage of candidates to reinforce issue ownership
i.e., a democrat would not receive much coverage speaking about national security
Details and findings from Ansolabehere and Lynegar (1994)’s experimental tests of the idea that ads work better for issues which a candidate has ownership (3)
- Randomly assigned participants to see campaign ads on unemployment or crime that were attributed to either a Democratic or Republican candidate
- The content of the ads was not varied
Findings
- Unemployment ads worked better when attributed to the Democrats
- Crime ads worked better when attributed to the Republicans
Do ads about sexual harassment issues work better when attributed to women or men? (3)
Women
Kuklinkski & Hurley (1996) - experiment examining agreement with a political statement on racial issues indicating that Black need to rely more on themselves to get ahead (3)
Statement attributed to
- White republican (Bush)
- Black democrat (Jackson)
- White democrat (Kennedy)
- Black republican (Thomas)
For black participants, race was more important
- black sources (more empowering) –> more agreement
- Racial distinction had issue ownership
No difference for white participants across conditions
Can issue ownership discourage a political party from diverting from the status quo? (3)
Yes
Riding-The-Wave Hypothesis (4)
The hypothesis that campaign ads are most effective when focus on issues that are receiving substantial attention in the news
Ansolabehere & Lynegar (1994) conducted experiments examining if ads were more effective when embedded in news broadcasts containing stories on the issue covered in the ad - what were the results? (4)
NO EVIDENCE
Attack Ads (5)
Political ads that primarily concentrate on the flaws of a candidate’s opponent rather than the strengths of a candidate
Ansolabehere & Lynegar content analysis to see if attack ads decrease voter turnout (5)
- Examined the 34 senate elections in 1992 and categorized the tone of these elections as negative, mixed, or positive based on analyses of media coverage and discussions with campaign consultants
- Found that 12 campaigns were positive, 6 were mixed, and 16 were negative
Voter turnout is lower in negative elections (49%) than in positive elections (57%) and mixed elections (52%)
- These differences were statistically significant and hold up even after controlling for other factors
Three possible reasons suggested for negative ads decrease turnout (5)
- Discourage supporters of attacked candidate
- Make public disenchanted with both candidates
- Decrease civic duty and perceived legitimacy of the electoral process
Who suffers the most from attack ads? (5)
Attacked candidates
–> way more than the candidate who sponsors the attack
Who are dropout rates highest for? (5)
Independents
–> more than both republicans and democrats
According to Lau & Romper, how do moderately negative ads affect turnout? (5)
increase turnout
According to Lau & Romper, how do very negative ads affect turnout? (5)
Decrease turnout
Microtargeting (6)
Use of personal information to guide the person-specific targeting and content of persuasive communication
Where is microtargeting info usually collected from? (6)
Online activity
Where is microtargeting mainly used? (6)
Marketing
What year did microtargeting generate controversy? (And concerning which events?) (6)
2016
- Trump Election
- Brexit yes vote
How is Cambridge Analytica related to the controversy of the events in 2016? (6)
Claimed to have exerted a major impact on these elections
Controversy –> ethics of data acquisition & accuracy of claims of magnitude
Microtargeting Mechanics (6)
- Gather information from social media platforms
- Supplemented information from data broker companies (which can be matched to people’s identities)
- Use computational algorithms to infer political attitudes, political affiliations, and personality traits
- Information used to identify promising targets for influence
Who does the information gathered in microtargeting mechanics target? (6)
- Members of other party who may be influenced to change sides
- Members of own party in need of bolstering to resist to neative influence
Does microtargeting work? (6)
Yes, but not as much as suggested in the media
Should microtargeting be done? (6)
Meh - privacy issues & public policy concerns
Stealing thunder (7)
The tactic of revealing incriminating information about oneself (or a person one is representing) before someone else reveals it in order to minimize the damage of that information
Reasons stealing thunder might work (7)
- Speaking against one’s self interest can enhance the speaker’s perceived credibility
- Allows the speaker to provide an initial more positive frame
- By releasing the information, the information is seen as less scarce (less valuable) –> doesnt appear to be hidden info
- People may perceive that the info is not damaging
Ondrus & Williams (1995) experiment with dead-beat dads (7)
- Participants listened to radio reports about a candidate who was known for his condemnation of “dead-beat dads”
- Participants learned that candidate had failed to pay child support for several years
Conditions:
- 1: A reporter revealed the information
- 2 (stealing thunder): The candidate revealed the information
- Control: there was no negative information
Results:
- The analyses revealed that stealing thunder decreased negative impact on candidate
Stealing thunder, reporters, & follow up (7)
Actual reporters are less likely to follow up on a story if the candidate revealed the information (versus revealing the information)
What are possible limiting conditions of stealing thunder? (7)
- If the information comes out before the person affected reveals it
Note: it works even for very damaging information and even when the person does not try to put a positive frame
Push Polling (8)
A persuasion tactic in which negative information about a candidate’s opponent is introduced to people under the guise of asking survey questions about this information
Why might push polling work? (8)
The source of the information (a polling organization) is seen as credible
The persuasive intent of the information is disguised
Is there an impact of polls and election night projections on turnout?
Yes
Possible reason election night projection can help the loser?
Winning voters become complacent and dont feel the need to vote
Possible reason election night projection can help the winning?
- Losing voters become dispirited and feel their vote does not matter
- Self-esteem maintenance (want to associate with a winning candidate AKA BIRG, and want to dissociate from losing candidate AKA CORF)
Ansolabehere & Lynegar (1994) experiments on election night projections - describe the study and the findings
Participants watched a news broadcast with either (a) no story on the presidential poll, (b) a story about a big lead for one candidate, or (c) a story about a modest lead for one candidate
Measures perceptions of candidates’ prospects, voting preferences, and voting intentions
Findings
- Effects on candidates’ prospects and voting preferences
- No effect on voting intentions (voter turnout)
Common voter mobilization appeals
Mailings
Phone calls
Recorded phone messages from well-known people
Face-to-face appeals
More recently, various forms of social media have received a great deal of attention
Why is face-to-face contact an effective voter mobilization appeal?
Social Proof
To what extent does face-to-face contact increase the probability of voting?
- some research says increase by 7% and some says 10-15%
- For every 12 people contacted, there is one more vote
How many people can be contacted per hour?
8
2 types of approaches used in the 2004 US presidential election
Geographical Approach
Social Network Approach
Which party took the geographical approach in the 2004 election? What did they do?
DEMOCRATS
- Contacted registration and mobilization work to political organizations allied with them (e.g., unions, political action groups)
- Groups coordinated efforts to avoid overlap
- Groups hired people to register voters who were paid for each voter registered and then paid again if the voter went to the polls (Financial incentives)
- Concentrated their registrations and mobilization drives in traditional areas of Democratic support
Which party took the social network approach in the 2004 election? What did they do?
REPUBLICANS
- Created an internal voter registration and mobilization organization within the campaign with a hierarchical structure
- Registration work and mobilization work conducted by about 1.2 million volunteers who were directed by the campaign
- Volunteers concentrated on registering and mobilizing people they knew such as neighbours, coworkers, fellow church members, etc.
Which approach worked best in the 2004 election?
The republicans won –> similarity/liking effects, psychological closeness, and no financial motive
