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Type-Set Politics: Impact of Newspapers on Public Confidence*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Arthur H. Miller ,
Edie N. Goldenberg  and
Lutz Erbring
Arthur H. Miller
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Edie N. Goldenberg
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Lutz Erbring
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Abstract

This study combines survey data from the 1974 American National Election Study with the front-page content of 94 newspapers in an investigation of the relationship between the degree of negative political criticism found in newspapers and their readers' feelings of trust in government and a sense of their own political effectiveness. Although newspaper reporting was primarily neutral or positive, readers of highly critical papers were more distrustful of government; but the impact of criticism on the more stable attitude of political efficacy was modest. Level of exposure to national news interacted with critical news content primarily to affect feelings of trust, and not efficacy.

This article posits a structural explanation of inefficacy as a result of accumulating distrust, where policy dissatisfaction, rather than dislike of incumbent leaders, acts as the main determinant of cynicism. In this model, media criticism serves as a “mediator” of political realities which eventually, although indirectly, affects political malaise.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , March 1979 , pp. 67 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1979

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Footnotes

*

We gratefully acknowledge the editorial improvements made by Oksana Malanchuk and Barbara Sweier's secretarial assistance.

The research reported here was in part funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (#SOC-7502704), the William and Mary Markle Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council.

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