Does Public Broadcasting Make a Difference? Political Knowledge and Electoral Campaigns on Television
Does Public Broadcasting Make a Difference? Political Knowledge and Electoral Campaigns on Television
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公共广播有影响吗？
DOI：
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
A. Jenssen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Jenssen
现代媒体的政治作用及其对公众舆论的影响受到了严格的审查。科学争论中的论点是在乐观的“认知动员”和悲观的“媒体不适”旗帜下构建的。由于显而易见的原因，电视的作用受到了最热烈的讨论。电视有最广泛的影响，被认为有最强的影响。到目前为止，大部分争论都是基于美国的数据。在许多欧洲国家，公共广播远比在美国更为突出，人们可以说，公共广播背后的理想已经在许多欧洲国家的电视业打上了烙印。挪威就是这样一个例子。当然，有趣的问题是，这是否重要。公共广播是否促进了提高政治能力的“良性循环”，而商业电视是否造成了“媒体弊病”？本研究使用挪威1997-2001年选举调查小组的数据，以克服基于横截面数据的许多研究中的主要方法问题：因果关系问题。研究者们常常将他们关于媒体曝光和政治知识之间联系的推论建立在横截面相关性的基础上。实证结果并不支持电视作为伟大的政治教育者的乐观看法。相反，无论是接触国有公共广播NRK还是商业电视2都无助于提高政治知识的总体水平。然而，NRK似乎是政治消息灵通人士的首选渠道。
The political role of the modern media and the impact on public opinion has come under intense scrutiny. The arguments in the scientific dispute have been structured under the optimistic ‘cognitive mobilisation’ and pessimistic ‘media malaise’ banners. For obvious reasons the role of television has been most intensely discussed. TV has the widest reach and is believed to have to the strongest impact. So far, much of the exchange of arguments has been based on data from the United States. In many European countries, public broadcasting is far more prominent than in the United States, and one can argue that the ideals underlying public broadcasting have put their mark on the TV industry in many European countries. Norway is such a case. The interesting question is, of course, whether this matters. Does public broadcasting foster a ‘virtuous circle’ of increased political competence, whereas commercial TV creates ‘media malaise’? Data from the Norwegian 1997–2001 election survey panel is used in this study to overcome the main methodological problem in the many studies based on cross-sectional data: the question of causality. Too often researchers have based their inferences about the link between media exposure and political knowledge on cross-sectional correlations. The empirical results do little to support the optimistic view of TV as the great political educator. On the contrary, neither exposure to the state-owned public broadcasting NRK nor the commercial TV2 help to increase the general level of political knowledge. However, NRK seems to be the preferred channel among the politically well-informed.