Abstract
This paper examines the extent to which attention to television news impacted affective evaluations of presidential candidates during the last two months of the 1992 campaign. Our analyses show that attentiveness to campaign news significantly influenced evaluations in a manner consistent with the tone of news coverage for each candidate. We disaggregate the data by party and ideology, however, and discover this effect to be conditional, depending critically on the character and intensity of political predispositions. Throughout the paper we emphasize the interplay between political predispositions and the valence of network coverage, underscoring the contingent effect of media messages. We conclude with a brief discussion of our results and stress the importance of partisan reinforcement, which we found was a major consequence of news media reception during the fall 1992 campaign.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abelson, Robert P., Kinder, Donald R., Peters, Mark D., and Fiske, Susan T. (1982). Affective and semantic components in political person perception.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 42: 619–630.
Ansolabehere, Stephen, Behr, Roy, and Iyengar, Shanto (1993).The Media Game: American Politics in the Television Age. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Arterton, Christopher F. (1993). Campaign '92: Strategies and tactics of the candidates. In Gerald M. Pomper (ed.),The Election of 1992: Reports and Interpretations. New Jersey: Chatham House Publisher.
Asher, Herbert B. (1983). Voting behavior research in the 1980s: An examination of some old and new problem areas. In Ada Finifter (ed.),Political Science: The State of the Discipline. Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, pp. 339–388.
Bartels, Larry M. (1985). Expectations and preferences in presidential nominating campaigns.American Political Science Review 79: 804–815.
Bartels, Larry M. (1988).Presidential Primaries and the Dynamics of Public Choice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Bartels, Larry M. (1993). Messages received: The political impact of media exposure.American Political Science Review 8(2):267–285.
Berelson, Bernard, Lazarsfeld, Paul, and McPhee, William (1954).Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation in A Presidential Campaign. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brody, Richard A. (1991).Assessing the President: The Media, Elite Opinion, and Public Support. Stanford University Press. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Brody, Richard A., and Page, Benjamin I. (1973). Indifference, alienation, and rational decisions.Public Choice 15: 1–17.
Campbell, Angus (1966).Elections and the Political Order. New York: Wiley.
Campbell, Angus, Gurin, Gerald, and Miller, Warren (1954).The Voter Decides. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.
Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip, Miller, Warren, and Stokes, Donald (1960).The American Voter. New York: Wiley.
Chaffee, Steven H., and Schleuder, Joan (1986). Measurement and effects of attention to media news.Human Communication Research 13(1): 76–107.
Clancey, Maura, and Robinson, Michael 91985). The media in campaign '84: General election coverage, part I.Public Opinion 7 (December/January).
Converse, Philip E. (1962) Information flow and the stability of partisan attitudes.Public Opinion Quarterly 26: 578–599.
Converse, Philip E. (1990). Popular representation and the distribution of information. In John A. Ferejohn and James H. Kuklinski, (eds.),Information and Democratic Processes. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 369–388.
Devlin, Patrick L. (1993). Contrasts in presidential campaign commercial of 1992.American Behavioral Scientist. 37: 272–290.
Diamond, Edwin, McKay, Martha, and Silverman, Robert (1993). Pop goes politics: New media, interactive formations, and the 1992 presidential campaign.American Behavioral Scientist 37: 257–261.
Epstein, Edward J. (1973).News from Nowhere. New York: Vintage Books.
Feldman, Stanley (1995). Answering survey questions: The measurement and meaning of public opinion. In Milton Lodge and Kathleen McGraw (eds.),Political Judgment. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 249–270.
Festinger, Leon (1957).A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Finkel, Steven E. (1993). Reexamining the “minimal effects” model in recent presidential campaigns.Journal of Politics 55(1): 1–21.
Fiske, Susan T., and Taylor, Shelley E. (1991).Social Cognition, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Frankovic, Kathleen A. (1993). Public opinion in the 1992 campaign. In Gerald M. Pomper (ed.),The Election of 1992: Reports and Interpretations. Chatham, New Jersey: Chatham House Publishers, Inc.
Freedman, Jonathan L., and Sears, David (1965). Selective exposure. In L. Berkowitz (ed.),Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 2. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, pp. 58–98.
Graber, Doris A. (1993a).Mass Media and American Politics, 4th ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.
Graber, Doris A. (1993b). Political communication: Scope, progress, promise. In Ada Finifter (ed.),State of the Discipline II. Washington, DC: American Political Science Assocation, pp. 305–332.
Heider, F. (1958).The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley.
Hershey, Marjorie R. (1992). The constructed explanation: Interpreting election results in the 1984 presidential race.Journal of Politics. 54: 943–975.
Iyengar, Shanto (1990). Shortcuts to political knowledge: The role of selective attention and accessibility. In John A. Ferejohn and James Kulinski (eds.),Information and Democratic Processes. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 160–185.
Iyengar, Shanto (1991).Is Anyone Responsible?: How Television Frames Political Issues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Iyengar, Shanto, and Kinder, Donald (1987).News That Matters: Television and American Opinion, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Iyengar, Shanto, and McGuire, William J. (eds.) (1993).Explorations in Political Psychology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Jamieson, Kathleen H., and Birdsell, David S. (1988).Presidential Debates: The Challenge of Creating an Informed Electorate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jordan, Donald (1993). Newspaper effects on policy preferences.Public Opinion Quarterly 57: 191–204.
Kahneman, Daniel, Slovic, Daniel, and Tversky, Amos (eds.) (1982).Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kaid, Lynda Lee (1981). Political advertising. In Dan D.Nimmo and Keith R. Sanders (eds.),Handbook of Political Communication, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Klapper, Joseph (1960).The Effects of Mass Communication. New York: Free Press.
Kraus, Sidney, and Davis, Dennis (1981). Political debates. In Dan D. Nimmo and Keith R. Sanders, (eds.),Handbook of Political Communication. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Krosnick, Jon A., and Brannon, Laura A. (1993). The impact of the Gulf War on the ingredients of presidential evaluations: Multidimensional effects of political involvement.American Political Science Review 87: 963–975.
Krosnick, Jon A., and Kinder Donald R. (1990). Altering the foundations of support for the president through priming.American Political Science Review 84: 497–512.
Lazarsfeld, Paul, Berelson Bernard, and Guadet, Hazel (1944).The People's Choice. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lippmann, Walter (1965).Public Opinion. New York: The Free Press. A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co.
Lodge, Milton, and Hamill, Ruth (1986). A partisan schema for political information processing.American Political Science Review 80: 505–519.
Lodge, Milton, and McGraw, Kathleen (eds.) (1995).Political Judgment: Structure and Process. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Lodge, Milton, and Stroh, Patrick (1993). Inside the mental voting booth: An impression-driven model of candidate evaluation. In Shanto Iyengar and William J. McGuite (eds.).Explorations in Political Psychology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 225–263.
Lodge, Milton, McGraw, Kathleen, and Stroh, Patrick (1989). An impression-driven model of candidate evaluation.American Political Science Review 83: 399–419.
Marcus, George (1988). The structure of emotional response: 1984 presidential candidates.American Political Science Review 82: 737–761.
McGuire, William J. (1992). Possible excuses for claiming massive media effects, despite the weak evidence. In Stanley Rothman (ed.).The Mass Media in Liberal Democratic Societies. New York: Paragon House, pp. 121–146.
McGuire, William J. (1986). The myth of massive media impact: Savagings and salvagings. In G. Comstock, (ed.),Public Communication and Behavior, vol. 1. Orlando: Academic Press, pp. 173–257.
Mondak, Jeffery J. (1993). Source cues and policy approval: The cognitive dynamics of public support for the Reagan agenda.American Journal of Political Science 37: 186–212.
Mutz, Diana C. (1992). Impersonal influence: Effects of representations of public opinion on political attitudes.Political Behavior 14(2): 89–122.
Myers, Dee Dee (1993). New technology and the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign.American Behavioral Scientist 37: 181–187.
Page, Benjamin I., Shapiro, Robert Y. and Dempsey, Glenn R. (1987). What moves public opinion?American Political Science Review 81: 23–43.
Patterson, Thomas (1981).The Mass Media Election: How Americans Choose Their President. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Petty, Richard E., and Priester, Joseph R. (1994). Mass media attitude change: Implications of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Bryant, J., and Zillmann, D. (eds.),Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 91–122.
Quattrone, George A., and Tversky, Amos (1988). Contrasting rational and psychological analyses of political choice.American Political Science Review 82: 719–736.
Quirk, Paul J., and Dalager, Jon K. (1993). The election: A “new Democrat” and a new kind of presidential campaign. In Michael Nelson (ed.),The Elections of 1992, Washington, DC: CQ Press, pp. 57–88.
Rahn, Wendy M., Krosnick, Jon A., and Breuning, Marijke (1994). Rationalization and derivation process in survey studies of political candidate evaluation.American Journal of Political Science 38: 582–600.
Roberts, Donald F., and Maccoby, Nathan (1985). Effects of mass communication. In Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson (eds.),Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed. New York: Random House, pp. 539–598.
Shafer, Byron E. (1988).Bifurcated Politics: Evolution and Reform in the National Party Convention, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Simon, Hebert (1957).Models of Man. New York: Wiley.
Smoller, Fred T. (1986). The six o'clock presidency: Patterns of network news coverage of the president.Presidential Studies Quarterly 16: 31–49.
Wartella, Ellen, and Middlestadt, Susan (1991). Mass communication and persuasion: The evolution of direct effects, limited effects, information processing, and affect and arousal models. In Lewis Donahew, Howard E. Sypher, and William J. Bukoski (eds.),Persuasive Communication and Drug Abuse Prevention. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wattenberg, Martin (1984).The Decline of American Political Parties, 1952–1980. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
West, Darrell M. (1991). Television and presidential popularity in america.British Journal of Political Science 22: 198–214.
Wyer, Robert S. Jr., and Ottati, Victor C. (1993). Political information processing. In Shanto Iyengar and William McGuire (eds.),Explorations in Political Psychology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 264–295.
Zaller, John (1992).The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion: New York: Cambridge University Press.
Zaller, John, and Feldman, Stanley (1992). A simple theory of the survey response: Answering questions versus revealing preferences.American Journal of Political Science 36: 579–616.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Joslyn, M.R., Ceccoli, S. Attentiveness to television news and opinion change in the fall 1992 presidential campaign. Polit Behav 18, 141–170 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01498788
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01498788