TY - JOUR
T1 - Does Commercialized Political Coverage Undermine Political Trust?
T2 - Evidence Across European Countries
AU - Ariely, Gal
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
©, Copyright Broadcast Education Association.
PY - 2015/7/3
Y1 - 2015/7/3
N2 - Media commercialization has long been suspected of exerting a negative influence upon political culture. The news media's interest in intrigues, personal details, and scandals rather than political issues in order to capture audience attention is regarded by many as a prime source of political cynicism. This article scrutinizes this claim by examining whether a commercialized media environment correlates with lower levels of citizen political trust across countries. Integrating cross-national survey data with country-level measures of commercialized political coverage, the findings indicate that, across 33 European countries, a negative link exists between media commercialization and political trust. Replication of the analysis with a separate cross-national survey across 28 countries demonstrated the robustness of the findings. These support the claim that media commercialization undermines political trust.
AB - Media commercialization has long been suspected of exerting a negative influence upon political culture. The news media's interest in intrigues, personal details, and scandals rather than political issues in order to capture audience attention is regarded by many as a prime source of political cynicism. This article scrutinizes this claim by examining whether a commercialized media environment correlates with lower levels of citizen political trust across countries. Integrating cross-national survey data with country-level measures of commercialized political coverage, the findings indicate that, across 33 European countries, a negative link exists between media commercialization and political trust. Replication of the analysis with a separate cross-national survey across 28 countries demonstrated the robustness of the findings. These support the claim that media commercialization undermines political trust.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84939419941&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08838151.2015.1055000
DO - 10.1080/08838151.2015.1055000
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84939419941
SN - 0883-8151
VL - 59
SP - 438
EP - 455
JO - Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
JF - Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
IS - 3
ER -