Right now, we’re living in a super-political environment.
Even reading the news is considered political.
Just mentioning a show can start a political argument!
But is it the media that’s political or are we politicizing it?
We consume a lot of media from news to mindless entertainment television.
And studies show the media we consume can affect our opinions.
From body image to political leanings our media consumption can affect a lot.
There are a lot of variables here, but that doesn’t mean we can’t apply a little bit
of science.
So, first, we have to think about television not as scripted drama or stage play, but as
images and messages that are brought into your home in highly-produced packages, creating
a shared national culture.
And some research shows that people who consume more “light” television are more likely
to be swayed.
Light television is in contrast to heavy.
So while heavy might be a documentary, or hard-hitting news, light might be entertainment
or variety tv.
But while we all see the politicization of news, surely light tv is okay.
RIGHT?
Not so much.
One particular team of researchers looked at Italy as a case study.
They focused on areas where the TV network Mediaset was most widely syndicated.
Mediaset was owned by a guy who ran for (and won) the office of prime minister of Italy.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, the network showed light entertainment content and then gradually
shifted to biased content in favor of the owner’s own political party.
The data science found, on average, Mediaset turned more voters toward the populist PM
candidate, compared to regions where his network was introduced later.
This suggests a correlation between long-term exposure to entertainment television (and
its possible political bias) and voting habits.
Back in the US, this is connected to a thing called the Fox News effect.
This American news network has an extreme right-leaning bias, that caters more to small-town
and suburban areas with populist bends.
Its viewers, too, skew ideologically conservative based on 2012 Pew studies.
But other media outlets are also skewed.
For example, while Fox was tough on the 2012 Democratic candidate, MSNBC was far tougher
on the Republican candidate that year.
But back back to Italy, the researchers also found a correlation between TV habits and
education.
On average, children exposed to entertainment tv at a young age grew into “cognitively
disadvantaged” adults.
And it’s not just kids.
People exposed to entertainment TV over time, regardless of age, are more likely to be taken
in by populist political rhetoric.
Across the board, entertainment content was shown to influence political attitudes, creating
what the researchers call a, quote, “fertile ground for the spread of populist messages.”
Which we know has become more popular in 2017.
Plus, the 2012 Pew Study found, Fox News viewers were on average less informed about current
events than people who don’t watch the news at all.
That’s right, less-informed than people who watched no news at all.
They conducted surveys covering both political events and general knowledge and a correlation
between lower scores on the survey and Fox News as the primary news outlet emerged.
Though, again, let’s be clear: this is a correlation, not a causation.
But still, the correlation is there.
Another team of researchers from an apolitical nonprofit, looked at data for over 9,200 towns
in 2006, and found that areas where Fox News entered the cable market by the year 2000
had a significant rise in Republican support.
That suggests a link between the station’s bias and its audience.
Fox News, they found, reinforced the views of Republican voters and shifted support among
independents.
Look, we’re not trying to pick on any specific news outlet.
We’re looking at the data, and the data says, some media is more ideological than
others
And can possibly affect how people see the world.
Plus, this was in 2012, we are far more polarized today than we were then.
Fox News is currently leading cable news channels for viewership.
Though viewers overall are fewer with the rise of alternatives to cable news online.
Which we didn’t even talk about here.
Some have gone so far as to say that stations airing such slanted programming is, and I’ll
paraphrase here, like an all-meat diet when really you need some variety.
Watching multiple news sources is always recommended as the best way to have a healthy news diet.
Exactly, is there a perfect news source?
No.
But there might be a better way to consume the news.
Instead of only watching Fox News or MSNBC, watch both.
And see what’s happening on Twitter.
And read the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and the BBC!
And if you don't have time to do all that, find a source that curates them for you.
If you’re worried about bias, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Anytime we can consider more sources we gain a broader opinion to have a better overall
sense of the world.
For more sciencey looks at your daily life, subscribe to Seeker!
And it’s not just news outlets affecting your voting habits, politicians also play
mind games to win.
Julia’s got more on that right here.
Here’s a fun fact to keep in mind, the definition of propaganda is “information, especially
of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political
cause or point of view.”
Hmm.