Conservative Talk Radio – Rush Limbaugh His background Role in blocking policies he didn’t like/forcing Pres. Clinton to moderate his policies Role in 1994 elections –Republicans win Congress Role in shaping media – leads move to “infotainment” Criticism by Streitmatter of Rush

Barker and Knight How did listening to Rush affect political attitudes and vote choice? Looked at issues discussed frequently by Rush and some discussed infrequently (coded 1-5). Found: strong positive relationship between frequency of issue/person’s discussion by Rush and strength of conservative opinion on that issue/person. Such as TV news anchors, Bill Clinton, national health insurance. Controlled for other factors that might lead to holding conservative opinions.

Barker and Knight Did listening to Rush CHANGE opinions over time? (show not just correlation between Rush-listening and opinion but impact over time). 1994-1996. Topics: gov’t spending, Clinton, Dole. As Rush became more positive toward Dole, listeners became more positive (though effects of “positive” coverage less marked than “negative” coverage, still an effect).

Barker and Knight Other research by Barker: Looked at Information and mis-information What were effects of listening to con. radio on information regarding 1) non-ideologically charged matters (facts. E.g. which party controls the House, who nominates federal judges) – neg. effect 2) ideologically charged matters (e.g. did the deficit increase under Pres. Clinton, does America spend more on welfare or defense?) – neg. effect Could do similar study of liberal talk radio

Note other research on “extreme” or “ideological” media Benjamin Taylor 2015 – looked beyond Rush Limbaugh: at Glenn Beck (conservative talk show host) and Keith Olbermann (liberal commentator): Found that people who listened to these sources did learn about policy, similar to learning from “mainstream” (non-ideological) media (PBS) Studied 2010 Arizona law pertaining to immigration- Found learning occurred from conservative source and liberal source, as well as from PBS, compared to people who watched a random video of a bird.

Why might learning from ideological/”extreme” media occur? “Affect” – extreme media engages people’s emotions, including anger and fear, which leads them to pay more attention to the content. Similar to negative advertising…

Daily Show

Baumgartner and Morris, Daily Show Experimental study and survey to assess effects of Daily Show Daily Show watchers expressed more negative views of both presidential candidates (Bush and Kerry). Daily Show lowered “external efficacy” – belief that gov’t is responsive to citizen demands. Made viewers more cynical – they had less faith in the political system. BUT Daily Show RAISED “internal efficacy” – the belief that you can understand politics – Why?

Positive effects of Daily Show? Besides raising internal efficacy? Generates cynicism but this may be a good thing…. Spurs critical thinking?

Blogs *Political Blogs – Daily Kos, Red State, Instapundit, Huffington Post… *Bloggers vs. traditional journalists PROS and CONS? *What do blogs offer that mainstream journalists tethered to ethic of objectivity don’t? *Criticisms of blogs?