Political Thought and the Media

[mtsuchiya]

Hello!

I am going investigate a "chicken or the egg" question. Do people watch a certain news station due to prior political beliefs or do viewers gain political beliefs from watching that particular news station.

For example, do conservatives watch FOX News because it is more tailored to their pre-set beliefs, or do viewers become more conservative because they watch FOX News? I just don't know how to conduct the experiment itself. What methods can I use to measure beliefs and how to I keep track?

Any ideas?

Thank you for your time!

[mbadtke]

mtsuchiya,
This sounds like an interesting question to test. My suggestion would be to develop a survey that asks people about what news stations they watch and their political views. You can also ask them about their political beliefs before and after watching the shows and if they have changed.

You might want to think about a different question, such as do people with strong political beliefs watch more political news channels than people with no strong political beliefs? That might be a little easier to answer with some survey questions. Let me know how it turns out!

Matt Badtke

[mtsuchiya]

My new question is now if media bias is powerful enough to actually sway opinion. I am now going to take a recent issue that is not deep rooted in people's beliefs already (not anything like abortion, etc) and through questioning, evaluate if there is any change. I just need the issue/topic I could use to question about.

[deleted-71536]

Hi there,

You have a good idea, and the topic of the question is really up to you! I'm not sure how you plan to measure the "media bias," but one way to see if media will change people's opinions is to use something like an infomercial. For example, does an infomercial really cause someone to believe that a product is good or important enough to purchase? It's not a political question, but most political questions are hot button topics.

That said, you might be able to examine something about road repair or education, which typically does not relate to religious or ethical beliefs.

I hope that helps.

Heather

[zep2889]

I agree with Heather L. I am currently studying this in college and the realm of media effects is a fascinating one. You may want to look to previous researchers to get an idea for topics that have been researched in the past. I recommend many of the things by Maxwell McCombs. His research is not directly in line with the question you are asking but he has done a lot of work in the political realm. His most notable contribution is an idea called "Agenda Setting". What this basically says is that the media tell you what to think about as opposed to what to think. Like I said, not exactly in line with what you want to do but some of the questions he asked may help steer you in the right direction. You can probably find some good stuff on Google Scholar or if your school has any good resources I would use those as well. If you get a big study I wouldn't worry too much about the statistics in these papers at this point. Just use them to get a good bearing on where to go and what to ask. I also might suggest Carl Hovland as a researcher you might look at. He did a lot of stuff with persuasion during and after WWII. Hope this helps. If you have any questions or anything feel free to post them. But you have a really cool topic that you are investigating.

[deleted-71817]

I just had a couple of thoughts on ways you may be able to survey "media bias." Perhaps you could survey the perceived quality of information received from different news sources on TV, and how much knowledge watchers believe they gain, say on a macro/micro scale or local/global scale. (If you want to find out how the economy is faring, on a global scale, it is very likely that you're not tuning into FOX news!) Either way, kudos on the project topic you want to look into! A very fascinating and relevant choice that I would love to seen done on a longitudinal scale!

[deleted-71884]

Hi mtsuchiya,

NIce project idea! You could always give surveys to random people (or interview them) and ask them if they watch the news, and if they do, do they watch the news for political reasons?

Hope that helps!

-Sam