Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Process Revealed: News Media, Legislators and Constituents Connections, Interactions and Communications

政治学博士论文研究：揭示的过程：新闻媒体、立法者和选民的联系、互动和沟通

• 批准号: 0318055
• 负责人: Michael MacKuen
• 金额: $ 0.58万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-08-15 至 2004-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0318055&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Political; Science

The American politics subfield of political science knows very little about the intricacies involved in legislator, news media and constituency interactions and communications in the political representation process. Political scientists have many pieces to the puzzle but nothing approaching a unified model. Critical in this doctoral dissertation research support's investigation is an understanding of the political representation process is the role of the news media as facilitator and provider of information between legislators and voters. While this dissertation will not answer all of the questions about this process, it begins to bridge the gaps between the relevant fields and literature of Congress, political communication, voting and, to some extent, political psychology. The fundamental question asked in this project is how does the introduction of the news media as a strategic actor affect the political representation process? The Ph.D. student argues that this is the single most crucial element in how political representation manifests itself in the U.S. political system, and yet the political science discipline has failed to adequately model its effect. This project attempts to fill the research gap for legislator, news media and constituency interactions in the political representation process in three integrative ways. First, the student develops formal models to investigate analytically how the introduction of the news media as a strategic actor can influence legislators - homestyles and campaigns. Second, he empirically tests the analytical results through content analyses of newspapers' coverage of U.S. House members to see what coverage actually looks like. Analyses are done on both local and national newspapers and serve as a direct empirical test of the results generated out of the formal models. Third, using the content analysis data, he empirically investigates whether and to what extent citizens respond to various types of news coverage about their House representatives. This investigation examines the news media's impact on reelection probabilities. The project has the potential for broader social impact by enhancing understanding of citizen-media relations and for citizen-legislator interactions.

美国政治学的子领域对政治代表过程中立法者、新闻媒体和选民互动和沟通的复杂性知之甚少。 政治学家有很多解决这个难题的方法，但没有一个接近统一的模型。 本博士论文研究支持调查的关键是了解政治代表过程中新闻媒体作为立法者和选民之间信息的促进者和提供者的作用。 虽然本文不会回答有关这一过程的所有问题，但它开始弥合国会、政治传播、投票以及在某种程度上政治心理学的相关领域和文献之间的差距。 该项目提出的基本问题是，新闻媒体作为战略参与者的引入如何影响政治代表过程？ 博士学位。学生认为，这是政治代表性在美国政治体系中如何体现的最关键因素，但政治学学科未能充分模拟其影响。本项目试图通过三种综合方式填补政治代表过程中立法者、新闻媒体和选区互动的研究空白。 首先，学生开发正式模型来分析研究新闻媒体作为战略参与者的引入如何影响立法者——家庭风格和竞选活动。 其次，他通过对报纸对美国众议院议员的报道进行内容分析，对分析结果进行实证检验，看看报道到底是什么样的。 分析是在地方和全国报纸上进行的，并作为对正式模型产生的结果的直接实证检验。 第三，利用内容分析数据，他实证调查了公民是否以及在多大程度上对有关众议院代表的各种新闻报道做出了反应。 这项调查探讨了新闻媒体对连任概率的影响。 该项目通过增强对公民与媒体关系以及公民与立法者互动的理解，有可能产生更广泛的社会影响。