A focusing event, i.e. a crisis or catastrophe, is interesting because it is most likely to enter the formal political agenda, obtain a lot of attention in the media and engage citizens. But when studying political consequences of focusing events the main emphasis often lies on the media’s performance or potential policy change. One interesting approach is therefore how citizens respond to crises and catastrophes and their expectations of politicians and various societal institutions.
During the spring of 2013, I will conduct an experiment on citizens’ response to focusing events. This project will provide a better understanding of citizens’ role in the wake of a crisis. What does the public expect from politicians and the government in times of a crisis? And is a focusing event accompanied by so called “policy without publics”?
The experiment will examine four recent Finnish crises. Data collection will take place in the MediaCity Lab at Åbo Akademi University, and the experiment will have 30 participants. A TV news feature stimuli will be showed to each participant when psychophysiological data is collected. The measurements include heart rate and skin conductance combined with an Emotiv headset measuring brain activity with EEG. After the stimuli the participant is interviewed. The combination of emotional and cognitive response will contribute to a better understanding of how citizens perceive a focusing event and expectations on politicians and societal institutions in case of a similar event.
The results from the forthcoming study will be included in the paper. The study is one of three that is included in my doctoral thesis. The dissertation looks at how focusing events influence the public arena, as well as implications for the parliamentary arena and the media arena.
