Political Psychology – Lecture 12 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]

The media presents narratives. It makes use of cognition and emotions. The media bias refers to the idea that media are not objective. This leads to more distrust in the media and is more prevalent among right-wing.  There is a media bias through four aspects:

1. Gatekeeping
   The media determines what is being covered.
2. Coverage bias
   The media determines how long something is covered.
3. Statement bias
   The media can include subtly include opinions.
4. Negative reporting
   The media can use negative reporting.

Fake Facebook pages lead to less trust in social media.

The agenda-setting theory states that the media does not determine what people think but it determines what people think about. Media coverage is related to topic importance. If a candidate is perceived as doing well on a topic the media emphasizes, the candidate is perceived as doing well overall. The agenda-setting effect is stronger for people with low political interest (1), party involvement (2) and education (3).

Framing states that the media influences both the understanding and evaluation of a topic. The media focuses on a specific element of a topic and this leads to a different evaluation of the topic.

Emotions are a powerful force within the political communication process. They are integral components of news frames and exposure to news framing can cause an individual to have specific emotional reactions.

Equivalency frames refer to qualitatively different yet potentially relevant considerations. Issue-specific frames refer to frames regarding a specific topic. Generic news frames refer to frames regarding a wide variety of topics.

The appraisal theory states that the development of an emotional state depends on individual and subjective evaluations of that event, meaning that a cognitive appraisal of a specific event precedes emotional response to a news frame.

Emotions affect political participation and attitudes. An emotion frame has a direct effect on opinion. A positive frame leads people to be more likely to have a positive opinion and people are more likely to feel enthusiasm and contentment. Enthusiasm, in turn, affects opinion. A negative frame leads people to be more likely to have a negative opinion and people are more likely to feel fear and anger. Anger, in turn, affects opinion.

Contentment and fear are not strongly related to opinion. Message-induced anger leads to more attention and more careful information processing. Message-induced fear leads to a low willingness to process information. Enthusiasm is related to mobilizing action tendencies and deep-information processing. Contentment is associated with immobility and a failure to process a message.

Social media influences voting behaviour in several ways:

1. Social media can lead to filter bubbles.
2. Social media leads to increased speed of message.
3. Social media can influence voting behaviour through fake news.
4. Social media makes people both receivers and senders of messages.
5. Social media reduces the gap between the voter and the political leader.
6. Social media potentially leads to an increase in voter turnout.
7. Social media can have political actions (e.g. digital petitions).
8. Social media reactions can indicate new political plans.
9. Social media can target specific groups with a campaign.

The bandwagon effect refers to voters increasing their support for a winner in the polls. The underdog effect refers to voters increasing their support for the loser in the polls. The media plays an important role in these effects as the media publishes polls. The bandwagon effect could be seen as a normal process in democracy (1) or as voters being manipulated.

Emotional excitement (1), enthusiasm of the crowd (2) and defection to avoid disappointment (3) are causes for the bandwagon effect. There are three options as a result of the bandwagon effect:

1. First voted for a losing party but after a poll change vote to winning party.
2. First voted for the winning party and no change of vote after a poll.
3. First undecided vote but after a poll change vote to winning party.

The journalist interpretation and the amount of polls someone is exposed to is important for the bandwagon effect. Enthusiasm reinforces existing attitudes and beliefs. Anxiety leads to a reconsideration of previously held beliefs which makes voting for the initially favoured party less likely. Choice might also be altered as a result of unexpected enthusiasm and anxiety (i.e. expectancy violation theory).

 Hearing about a winning party makes someone less anxious about a winning party and this makes people more likely to vote for a winning party. It also makes people more enthusiastic about a party which makes it more likely that they vote for this party.

The bandwagon effect exists via party ratings. It exists through enthusiasm but less so via anxiety. There is no support for the underdog effect.

The leading candidate mostly uses enthusiasm and pride in the advertisements. The trailing candidate mostly uses fear and anger in the advertisements. Republicans and women use more fear and anger. There are more positive emotions at the beginning of a campaign and more negative emotions at the end of a campaign.