Secondary Political Messaging: Sociopolitical Cues in Nonpolitical Media

• In Event: 50216 - Narrative Strategies in Political Sociology

Abstract

Most research on political communication and persuasion focuses on explicit political messages. For example, survey research often asks respondents the primary medium in which they consume news, offering legacy and social media sources as options. But particularly in an age of political cynicism and disconnection, people likely gain political messages from sources that are not overtly political, including popular culture, informal conversation, and interpretations of sports and entertainment media. Indeed, they may gain political ideas without knowing the messages are political – for example, internalizing “common sense” ideas about race, gender, sexuality, class, or major institutions through everyday, ostensibly nonpolitical talk. This paper details the political content of four lifestyle and entertainment podcasts, cataloging the political messages listeners were exposed to in the podcasts. It uses the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riots as a natural experiment, comparing messages from the same podcasts before and after the riot.

Authors

• Maya Jenkins, Johns Hopkins University

• Andrew J. Perrin, Johns Hopkins University