Politicians Appearing in Talk Shows and Political Cynicism

An experimental study to the effects of infotainment

Boukes, Mark Boomgaarden, Hajo G. Amsterdam, February 2012

Content of this presentation

Infotainment Hypotheses

Method
Results Discussion

Infotainment

Infotainment

Changes in the relationship between media and politicians:

Interest of popular genres in politically relevant topics

Willingness of politicians

Popular genres and Politicians

Commericialization:
Mixing information with entertainment as a shift from programs in the public interest to programs the public is interested in (Brants & Neijens, 1998, p. 150)

Politicians and Popular TV Programs

Political motivations (Baum, 2005): - personal issues, not critical interview - Least politically interested and engaged - Easier to persuade

Focus of program Audience of talk shows

Hypothesis I
Demobilization People, exposed to an entertaining talk show program that

shows an interview with a politician, will have a higher level of

political cynicism, than those exposed to a serious current affairs program that shows an interview with the same politician

- distracts from genuinely important issues

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Hypothesis II
Bridging function The effect of exposure to a certain television talk show versus a

similar current affairs program on peoples level of political

cynicism is moderated by peoples level of political knowledge

- those with less political knowledge barely see any political news

Method

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Method: Experiment
Sample:

273 participants (Age: M = 30.6, SD = 12.2) and 57.1% female

- Survey pool of the ASCoR - Among contacts of the researcher and his acquaintances - Advertisements in two local magazines and a news item on one local website.

- Participated from May 12 to June 1, 2011

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Method: Experiment II

2 between-subjects (program genre: talk show vs. current affairs program) factorial design with control group

Random assignment to videos with the same politician

Condition 1 (n = 71) : Talk show (KoffieMax) Condition 2 (n = 80) : Current Affairs (AltijdWat)
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Koffiemax Talk show

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AltijdWat Current affairs

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Method: Experiment III

Dependent variable: Political cynicism

- A good and rather strong Mokken scale of 12 items: (H = .43; = .89; M = 48.31, SD = 10.19) What participants think about politicians in terms of

1) competency,
2) being self-interested, 3) helping people,

6) having lost contact with society,

7) solving problems, 8) speaking the truth,

4) reliability,
5) wasting taxes,

9) honesty,
10) nepotism, 11) keeping promises,
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12) being interested in ordinary peoples opinions

Results

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Results: Effects on political cynicism

Genre: Talk Show versus Current Affairs

ANCOVA 1: F(1, 139) = 1.65, p = .490, 2 = .00

No general effect of the genre which people saw

Moderation of political knowledge

ANCOVA 2: F(2, 136) = 3.86, p = .016, 2 = 0.06 Interaction effect between genre and knowledge
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Results II
Unknowledgeable: More cynical after current affairs

Knowledgeable: More cynical after talk show

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Discussion I
Explanation I:
No general effect, groups level off.

Explanation II:
Talk show: Campaign trick VS Nice to understand Current Affairs: Accountable politicians VS Politicians live in their own world

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Conclusion

Infotainment in this case talk shows not necessarily bad Bridging function

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Thanks!

Questions or comments?

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Politicians Appearing in Talk Shows and Political Cynicism

An experimental study to the effects of infotainment
Boukes, Mark Boomgaarden, Hajo G. Amsterdam, February 2012