Diana C. Mutz

The Consequences of Cross-Cutting Networks for Political Participation

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The New Videomalaise: Effects of Televised Incivility on Political Trust

Does incivility in political discourse have adverse effects on public regard for politics? If so, why? In this study we present a theory suggesting that when viewers are exposed to televised political disagreement, it often violates well-established face-to-face social norms for the polite expression of opposing views. As a result, incivility in public discourse adversely affects trust in government. Drawing on three laboratory experiments, we find that televised presentations of political differences of opinion do not, in and of themselves, harm attitudes toward politics and politicians. However, political trust is adversely affected by levels of incivility in these exchanges. Our findings suggest that the format of much political television effectively promotes viewer interest, but at the expense of political trust.

The Workplace as a Context for Cross-Cutting Political Discourse

Political dialogue among citizens offers numerous potential contributions to American politics, but attainment of these benefits hinges largely on the extent to which conversations cross lines of political difference. In what contexts are cross-cutting interactions most likely to thrive? Using data from five surveys, we find consistent evidence that the workplace is the social context best positioned to facilitate cross-cutting political discourse. Political discussion in the workplace involves a large number of discussants, and it involves greater exposure to people of dissimilar perspectives than does discussion in contexts such as the family, the neighborhood, or the voluntary association. We next consider whether workplace-based interactions are capable of producing beneficial effects. Despite the notoriously weak nature of work-based social ties, we find evidence that workplace-based exposure to differing political views increases peoples knowledge of rationales for political perspectives other than their own and also fosters political tolerance.

Dimensions of Sociotropic Behavior: Group-Based Judgements of Fairness and Well-Being

Theory: Drawing on theories of group-based effects on political judgments, we argue that group-level economic perceptions may complement the familiar pocketbook and sociotropic indicators as determinants of political evaluations. We examine three processes by which groups may influence political judgement: group membership, group identification, and group comparison. Hypotheses: We hypothesize that people hold group-level economic perceptions that are independent from family-level and national-level appraisals, and that these group-level perceptions influence political judgments. Further, we develop a series of specific hypotheses regarding the influence of group membership, group identification, and group comparison on the link between economic perceptions and political evaluations. Methods: Our dependent variable is the presidential vote choice, with data from the 1984 South Bend Study. We estimate a series of logistic regression models of the presidential vote to explore if and how group-level economic perceptions affect the vote choice. Results: People do hold group-level economic perceptions that are largely independent from economic judgments regarding the family and the nation as a whole. Group-based economic assessments affect the presidential vote choice, but, surprisingly, this influence is not a function of group membership, group identification, or traditional forms of group comparison such as relative deprivation. Instead, findings point to the significance of a unique form of group comparison, sociotropic fairness: voters are substantially more likely to judge the president favorably if they feel that class groups have enjoyed similar rather than dissimilar changes in economic performance.

Effects of "In-Your-Face" Television Discourse on Perceptions of a Legitimate Opposition

How do Americans acquire the impression that their political foes have some understandable basis for their views, and thus represent a legitimate opposition? How do they come to believe that reasonable people may disagree on any given political controversy? Given that few people talk regularly to those of opposing perspectives, some theorize that mass media, and television in particular, serve as an important source of exposure to the rationales for oppositional views. A series of experimental studies suggests that television does, indeed, have the capacity to encourage greater awareness of oppositional perspectives. However, common characteristics of televised political discourse—incivility and close-up camera perspectives—cause audiences to view oppositional perspectives as less legitimate than they would have otherwise. I discuss the broader implications of these findings for assessments of the impact of television on the political process, and for the perspective that televised political discourse provides on oppositional political views.

Contextualizing Personal Experience: The Role of Mass Media

This study considers competing theories concerning the role of mass media in hindering or facilitating the translation of personal experiences into political preferences. Using national survey and media content data that allow evaluations of both media coverage and individual patterns of media use, this study evaluates the influence of mass media on the direct impact of personal experiences on presidential performance as Ronald Reagan completed his second term in office, and on the indirect impact of personal experiences by means of their impact on collective-level issue judgments. Exposure to unemployment news appears to strengthen the impact of personal experiences on presidential performance ratings. Heavy unemployment coverage also increases the extent to which perceptions of national unemployment conditions are generalized from personal experience. Overall, results suggest that mass media may counter the tendency to morselize personal experiences and help legitimize the translation of private interests into political attitudes.

The Friendly Media Phenomenon: A Cross-National Analysis of Cross-Cutting Exposure

We hypothesize that in the real world, as opposed to the lab, the norm is for people to experience friendly media that favor their political predispositions when political favoritism is perceived at all. For this reason, media are generally limited in their ability to create cross-cutting exposure. We test this hypothesis using representative survey data drawn from 11 different countries with varying media systems. We further hypothesize that television will contribute more to cross-cutting exposure than newspapers. Finally, and most importantly, we test the hypothesis that the more the structure of a countrys media system parallels that of its political parties, the more that countrys population will be dominated by exposure to like-minded views via mass media. We find confirmation for all 3 of these hypotheses and discuss their implications for the role of mass media in providing exposure to cross-cutting political perspectives.

Not Necessarily the News: Does Fictional Television Influence Real-World Policy Preferences?

Communication and Political ScienceThe Hebrew UniversityIn 1992, when vice president of the United States Dan Quayle lashed outagainst fictional television personality Murphy Brown for glamorizing singlemotherhood and mocking the importance of fathers, many observers foundthe public dialogue surrounding this incident absurd. After all, Quayle wascriticizing the actions of a fictional character in a weekly sitcom, not a realperson (see, e.g., ‘‘Dan Quayle,’’ 1992). Likewise, in 2005 when a vicepresident of the National District Attorneys Association railed against thedrama In Justice on the editorial pages of the New York Times, he wascomplaining about a fictional television drama, not about events that hadactually happened (Marquis, 2006). Political leaders and the general publicoften express concerns about the influence of fictional programming on

The Future of Political Communication Research: Reflections on the Occasion of Steve Chaffee's Retirement from Stanford University

In response to the theme of today’s panel, I have outlined just a few of many changes in the nature of the work that we do that are either currently on the horizon or already in progress. These are ways that the study of political communication today strikes me as quite different from when I was being trained as a graduate student of Steve’s more than 10 years ago. Many of the issues and questions I pose here also form the bulk of my own “to-do” list with respect to areas where I think our field is in need of further research.

DIRECT AND INDIRECT ROUTES TO POLITICIZING PERSONAL EXPERIENCE DOES KNOWLEDGE MAKE A DIFFERENCE

This study examines the effects of issue-specific knowledge on the extent to which personal unemployment experiences influence presidential approval. The well informed are found to be more likely to connect personal experiences directly to political preferences, yet less likely to generalize from their own personal experiences in assessing the state of the nation as a whole. Since perceptions of the state of national conditions have a well-documented influence on presidential approval, simultaneously considering direct and indirect paths helps to resolve contradictory implications in past findings on the role of information in conditioning the politicization of personal economic experience. The weak overall impact of self-interest on political preferences is widely known and well documented (for a review, see Sears and Funk 1990). Subsequent research in this vein has shifted toward locating conditions under which personal experiences are most likely to be politicized (see, e.g., Feldman 1985). The concepts used to locate groups most likely to rely on personal experiences-have run the gamut from distinctions made on the basis of socioeconomic position (Weatherford 1983), habitual versus occasional voting (Cohen and Uhlaner 1991), levels of issue-specific knowledge (Conover, Feldman, and Knight 1986), and levels of news media use (Mutz 1992; Weatherford 1983). Scholars generally concur about the distinction relevant to these comparisons: those with high levels of political knowledge, heavy use of mass media, high levels of political interest, and regular involvement in the political process are expected to differ in their decision-making DIANA C. MUTZ is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of WisconsinMadison. The author would like to thank the Letters and Sciences Survey Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for making these data available and Dick Brody for his comments on an earlier draft of this study. Public Opinion Quarterly Volume 57:483-502 ? 1993 by the American Association for Public Opinion Research All rights reserved. 0033-362X/93/5704-0006