To what extent does media coverage of grass-root citizen activity promote citizen activism?

Résumé du document

The American citizen has evolved as a well-behaved political spectator, keen towards national affairs. The combination of an authoritative presentation style on behalf of the network news organizations and a lack of thorough coverage on citizen activist groups has cultivated a pacified audience that is both content to watch the world turn at a distance and unaware of how capable they are in affecting that world. I believe that this political disengagement is in large part due to (or at least amplified by) the manner in which network news is conferred onto the public and therefore my hypothesis is that as viewers become exposed to more coverage of citizen organizations and activist groups, they will in turn feel and eventually become more involved and active in the realm of politics. The experimental design to test this hypothesis will examine if more coverage of active, ordinary citizens on the evening news will lead to a surge in political engagement.

Extraits

[...] To what extent does media coverage of grass-root citizen activity promote citizen activism? The American citizen today has become a well-behaved political spectator, keen to national affairs but often quite removed from the political process itself. The combination of an authoritative presentation style on behalf of the network news organizations and a lack of thorough coverage on citizen activist groups has cultivated a pacified audience that is both content to watch the world turn at a distance and unaware of how capable they are in affecting that world. [...]

[...] How would this person compare to someone who is in many activist organizations but never donates any money? Despite this, we would still be able to observe changes in behavior in each individual case, and this should be sufficient to test our initial proposals. In Lance Bennett's News: Politics of Illusion, he claims that news that would better serve democracy would (among other things) also provide diverse viewpoints that would bridge the gap that ordinary people feel between themselves and politicians, it would offer more behind-the-scenes analysis of how politics works, and it would interact with viewers more to educate them about pertinent civic organizations. [...]

[...] These questions will be asked of the sequential experiment participants periodically over the course of one year. It is my belief that the assemblage experiment will show that people feel they can affect more change in politics, while the sequential experiment will test if people actually become more active after sustained exposure to such coverage. The strengths of this design include the fact the design itself is quite simple and easily controlled. Similarly, the fact that we are testing both for positive correlation and negative correlation will examine whether network news has the power to show people how capable they are of getting involved, and whether the current authoritative style of network news actually discourages viewers from becoming politically engaged. [...]

[...] The purpose of these last two groups is to provide further evidence that the style of network news presentation is the direct cause of political disengagement, and not just a correlated effect. Participants in the experiment will be polled immediately before and after viewing the broadcast and asked the following: On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the most), how politically involved do you consider yourself? On a scale from 1 to 10, how easy do you think it would be for you to affect social or political change in America? How effective are organized citizen groups in bringing about political change? [...]

[...] The participants would be asked the same questions as above, but they would also be asked the following: How many elections have you voted in (congressional and presidential) in that past 8 years? How many activist groups have you joined, or been active in, in the past 5 years? How much money have you donated to a citizen organization or interest group in the past 5 years? How many city/town hall meetings have you attending in the past year? How many non-candidate votes (i.e. propositions, etc.) have you participated in, in the past year? [...]