Media Effects on Political Attitudes

The main aim of the proposed paper  is determining the scope and character of the influence of media (both traditional and social) on political orientations. Sociology and political science have acquired a significant body of knowledge about the content, structure  and determinants of socio-political attitudes. We know what factors shape political orientations, and how  citizens’ views are linked with programs of political parties. On the other hand, communication studies provide a rich picture of the changing landscape of broadcast and print media. We know a lot about structural conditions shaping this sector, about changing criteria of content selection, and about forms of media consumption. However, we know too little about the intersection of these two areas. In the paper we test hypotheses derived from existing theoretical and empirical work (outlined below). They will concern firstly, the impact of media on developing and articulating attitudes; secondly, the role of ideological links between citizens and the media (friendly v. hostile) in influencing attitudes; thirdly, the strength of cognitive competence as intervening variable in the relation between the media exposure and attitudes. We formulate the following hypotheses: Firstly, we posit that citizens are intellectually and emotionally linked to particular news outlets (newspapers, internet websites), which frame issues in the manner consistent with citizens’ ideological orientation (partisan bias). This hypothesis flows the friendly media theory: news consumers tend to switch to like-minded outlets whenever possible, and these outlets serve in organizing and reinforcing voters’ belief systems. Secondly, we believe that “friendly” media have more impact on political attitudes than “hostile” outlets. However, the impact of the media will be limited, regardless of orientation (source bias). Thirdly, in our view exposure to positive or negative news frames will have different influence on support for particular political parties, depending on intervening variables. Unsophisticated individuals under strong exposure to one-sided information flow will be particularly influenced by news. In order to test our hypotheses we use survey data on a sample representative for citizens of Poland. Its aim is determining the extent to which media coverage influenced political attitudes of citizens, encouraged them to vote, and had a role in party choice. The survey  follows a quasi-experimental design: respondents will be subject to stimulus: analogous content originating from various sources will  be presented to supporters of different political parties.