PS270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Political Journalism, United States Presidential Approval Rating, John Zaller
Document Summary
Sizeable literature on political social influence processes within the fields of political science, social psychology, sociology, political psychology, and communications. The vast majority of studies have been conducted within the american political context. Political media research has typically focused on two sources of influence. Early on, anecdotal evidence suggested that the media exerted very direct and powerful effects on citizens" political attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Subsequent survey research by (berelson, lazarsfeld, & mcphee, 1954; klapper, 1960) suggested that the media has little impact, but instead simply reinforces existing values and attitudes. Some of these researchers examined political attitudes of citizens over time during elections and found little evidence of changes in attitudes; instead opinions often became more polarized. More recently, researchers have come to recognize that the media can have a powerful effect, but often only under certain conditions and often indirectly.
