Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: How Civic Journalism Influences Political Learning and Deliberation

民主党理论家认为，好公民的两个特征是公民知情，以及对政策问题进行理性、批判性的公开讨论。虽然这些规范性的理想推动了政治学的大量研究，但记者也开始利用民主理论来证明政治报道的戏剧性变化是合理的。这种方法被称为公民新闻，它的一个显著特征是强调问题，在政治报道中放弃“赛马”报道。旨在评估公民新闻对学习的影响的调查研究得出了相互矛盾的结果，学者们还没有衡量这场运动对审议的影响。利用实验和实验焦点小组，这项研究项目将评估公民新闻和赛马报道对政治学习和审议的影响。这些是核心的研究问题：首先，个人是从公民新闻的问题报道、赛马报道还是两者的组合中学到更多东西？其次，在个人层面上，当读者讨论他们读过的材料时，这些信息的使用在不同的框架下是如何变化的？第三，在群体层面上，问题信息是否更有可能引发民主理论家所珍视的广泛的、寻求共识的商议？这篇博士论文研究支持奖从四个方面推进了媒体对政治学习和话语的影响的研究：首先，本研究借鉴了社会心理学和政治学的文献，阐明并检验了媒体效果催化剂理论的认知和情感框架。其次，本研究拓展了框架研究的文献。第三，通过一项实验，该项目进一步隔离了构成公民新闻核心的问题报道的影响。第四，本项目使用实验焦点小组，扩展了意见形成和民主审议理论的应用。研究将大大提高我们对这一主题的理解。

Democratic theorists argue that two of the hallmarks of good citizenship are an informed citizenry and rational, critical public discourse about policy issues. While these normative ideals have fueled considerable research in political science, journalists also have begun to draw on democratic theory to justify a dramatic change in coverage in of politics. This approach is called civic journalism and one of its defining features is an emphasis on issues and the abandonment of "horse-race" coverage in reporting on politics.Survey research aimed at evaluating the effect of civic journalism on learning has yielded conflicting results, and scholars have yet to measure the movement's influence on deliberation. Using experiments and experimental focus groups, this research project will assess the effects of civic journalism and horse-race coverage on political learning and deliberation. These are the central research questions: First, do individuals learn more from the issue coverage that is characteristic of civic journalism, horse race coverage or a combination of the two frames? Second, at the individual level, how does the use of this information vary by frame when readers discuss the material they have read? Third, at the group level, is issue information more likely to generate the wide-ranging, consensus-seeking deliberation prized by democratic theorists?This Doctoral Dissertation Research Support award advances the study of media effects on political learning and discourse in four ways: First, drawing on the social psychological and political science literatures, this research articulates and tests a cognitive and affective framework for a catalyst theory of media effects. Second, the research extends the literature on framing. Third, through the use of an experiment, this project further isolates the effects of the issue coverage that forms the core of civic journalism. Fourth, this project uses experimental focus groups to extend the application of theories of opinion formation and democratic deliberation.The research should enhance substantially our understanding of the topic.