An Analysis of News Use on Political Efficacy and Trust across 5 Decades

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Communication

Abstract

To date, mobilisation and media malaise theorists have not yet agreed on whether the media impact political attitudes and affections positively or negatively. Whereas some posit that the media empower citizens by bolstering political learning and knowledge -people know more, and as a result care more and trust more (e.g. Norris, 2000); others argue instead that news coverage has intensified citizens’ hostility towards politics by focusing on political battles, negativity, or political incivility (Binderkrantz & Green-Pedersen, 2009; Mutz & Reeves, 2005; Pedersen, 2012; Soroka & McAdams, 2015; but see Adriaansen, Van Praag, & De Vreese, 2010).

The aim of this study is to assess the role of news media on citizens’ satisfaction with the functioning of the political system over time. We rely on cross-national data from the US, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany to empirically test the proposition that the contribution of the news media to perceptions of political efficacy and trust has decreased across five decades (1960s to 2000s). We perform a series of regression models combining a) voter survey data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), the Swiss Election Study (Selects), the Italian National Election Studies (ITANES), and the German Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach (IfD) and b) content data from a quantitative content analysis of 3 news outlets (national, regional, and weekly newspapers) per country.

Preliminary analyses with data from more than 48,200 individuals and 1,675 news stories across two of the four information environments (the US and Switzerland) confirm that, compared to former times, current news media fail to galvanize citizens’ support for the political system. Results show a positive effect of reading newspapers on individual political efficacy and trust, but such impact is attenuated over time.

We anticipate two possible explanations. First, the shrinking importance of news exposure for explaining levels of political trust and efficacy goes hand in hand with a tantamount increase in coverage of political scandals over time. Second, high pressures to compete for audiences provide news organizations with an incentive to engage in boundless coverage of scandals, amplifying the potential of news media to reinforce political alienation and hostility.

In particular, in contexts where the number of 'scandalous' news stories that express public outrage and denounce a political behavior increase, and where the news media compete for low-motivated audiences (namely, the US), we find that the positive relationship between news exposure and political efficacy and trust decreases over time (OLS coefficients of newspaper read on political efficacy and trust reveal a positive but shrinking relationship across years). This is in contrast to a media system (Switzerland) with more committed news readers, where broadsheet formats enjoy a prominent position in the news market and journalists’ autonomy is highly valued (Umbricht & Esser, 2016). On average, newspaper articles in Swiss media contain less 'scandal' framing than US media (M=0.24, SD=0.02 for Switzerland, M=1.55, SD=0.02 for the US, t(994)=3.32. p<0.001), and news on political scandals has not increased consistently over time. Accordingly, the correlation between news consumption and political trust in Switzerland does not weaken across decades.

Overall, our longitudinal and cross-national study sheds light on the democratic implications of journalistic strategies to popularize politics, and shows how media institutional contexts can moderate the importance of news read in explaining levels of perceived responsiveness and trust in governments.

References

Adriaansen, M. L., Van Praag, P., & De Vreese, C. H. (2010). Substance matters: How news content can reduce political cynicism. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 22(4), 433–457.
Binderkrantz, A., & Green-Pedersen, C. (2009). Policy or processes in focus? The International Journal of Press/Politics, 14(2), 166–185.
Mutz, D. C., & Reeves, B. (2005). The new videomalaise: Effects of televised incivility on political trust. American Political Science Review, 99(1), 1–15.
Norris, P. (2000). A Virtuous Circle? The impact of political communications in post-industrial democracies. In Challenges to Democracy (pp. 100-117). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Pedersen, R. T. (2012). The game frame and political efficacy: Beyond the spiral of cynicism. European Journal of Communication, 27(3), 225–240.
Soroka, S., & McAdams, S. (2015). News, politics, and negativity. Political Communication, 32(1), 1–22.
Umbricht, A., & Esser, F. (2016). The push to popularize politics: Understanding the audience-friendly packaging of political news in six media systems since the 1960s. Journalism Studies, 17(1), 100–121.

Authors

• Laia Castro Herrero

• Frank Esser, University of Zurich

• Lilach Nir, Hebrew University of Jerusalem