News Consumption & Political Socialization
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NEWS CONSUMPTION & POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION AMONG YOUNG, URBAN JORDANIANS Justin D. Martin A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication Chapel Hill 2009 Approved by: Anne Johnston, Chair Philip Meyer Rhonda Gibson Lynda Lee Kaid Aida Bamia ABSTRACT JUSTIN D. MARTIN: News Consumption & Political Socialization Among Young, Urban Jordanians (Under the direction of Anne Johnston, Ph.D.) This study examined the associations between young urban Jordanians’ (N=321) news consumption patterns and their feelings toward the Jordanian and U.S. governments. Consumption of traditional news delivery formats (such as print newspapers, radio broadcasts, and interpersonal sources) was measured, as was reliance on new media formats such as blogs, text messaging, and podcasting. Young Jordanians’ assessments of the Jordanian and U.S. governments were operationalized as indices of political cynicism, political trust, and ratings of the U.S. government. News consumption variables were regressed on the political attitude scales, with media credibility included as a control variable. Young Jordanians in the sample rely mostly on TV news, newspapers, and interpersonal contacts for current events information. Just two of the news consumption variables, TV news use and reliance on interpersonal sources, were associated with political attitudes measured in the study; these variables negatively predicted feelings toward the U.S. government. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the care and support of many. To my collaborative and constructive committee members: thank you for supporting my dissertation project, which demanded beyond-the-box thinking and flexibility. And thank you for using your training and expertise to make the project strong. To my loving parents, Bill and Sandy: thank you for raising me in a home in which reading was routine and knowledge was prized, and for showing the world beyond that home. My first trip to the Arab world was with both of you, and I’ve been unsatisfiably interested in it ever since. And to my precious wife, Natalie: I dedicate this dissertation to you. My relationship with you, not my profession, defines who I am. I can be far from my work and still be happy, but I cannot live apart from you. Everything I have worth dedicating can be assigned only to you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………………..vi LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………………...vii Chapter I. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….1 Jordan and Its Media Environment……………………………………………….5 The Jordanian Press………………………………………………………………8 News Access and Consumption in Jordan…………………………………...….13 Print News in Jordan…………………………………………………………….15 Broadcast News in Jordan……………………………………………………….18 Access to International & Online News in Jordan………………………………21 II. Review of the Literature...................................................................…........................26 Political Socialization............................................................................................26 Three Forms of Political Socialization Research………………………………..29 Mass Communication & Political Socialization………………………....………31 Shortcomings of Research on Mass Communication & Political Socialization……………………………………………………………33 More Contemporary Research on Media & Political Socialization……………..36 The Recent Resurgence in Media & Political Socialization Research...……......37 Political Socialization & Mass Communication in Jordan……………………...40 Research Questions...............................................................................................46 iv III. Method……………………………………………………………………................50 Instrument & Variables………………………………………………..................54 News Consumption Variables……………………………………………...........56 Governmental Assessment Variables…………………………………................59 Media Assessment Variables…………………………………………….............61 Demographic Variables………………………………………………….............61 Survey Procedures……………………………………………………….............62 Districts………………………………………………………………….............63 A Word on Sample Quotas & Weighting………………………………..............64 Assessing the Validity of the Political Socialization Scales…………….............65 IV. Results………………………………………………………………………............68 Sample…………………………………………………………………...............68 News Consumption Patterns…………………………………………….............70 Political Attitudes……………………………………………………….............76 Associations Between News Consumption & Political Socialization Variables…………………………………………………………………...........83 V. Discussion……………………………………………………………………............91 News Consumption………………………………………………………...........92 Political Socialization Measures…………………………………………...........97 Young Jordanians’ News Use & Political Socialization Measures………........108 Conclusion………………………………………………………………..........117 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………............124 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………….......156 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Recruitment Statistics by City District……………………………………………170 2. Refusal Statistics by City District…………………………………………………171 3. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample………………………………………172 4. Population-Respondent Figures…………………………………………………...173 5. Overall News Consumption Patterns……………………………………………...174 6. Top News Sources Listed By Respondents……………………………………….175 7. Respondents Receiving News Information from Interpersonal Sources…………..176 8. Composite Scales of Political Trust, Political Cynicism & Media Credibility……177 9. Respondents’ Reported Levels of Political Cynicism, Political Trust & U.S. Government Ratings……………………………………………………………….178 10. Regression Model Using Demographic & News Consumption Variables to Predict Political Cynicism……………………………………………179 11. Regression Model Using Demographic & News Consumption Variables to Predict Political Trust………………………………………………...180 12. Regression Model with Demographic & News Consumption Variables Predicting Feelings toward the U.S……………………………………..181 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. “Jordan First” Emblem…………………………………………………………....182 2. Histogram of Political Cynicism Scores…………………………………………183 3. Histogram of Political Trust Scores………………………………………………184 4. Histogram of U.S. Government Rating Index……………………………………185 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In Jordan, it is not uncommon to see pictures of the country’s King, Abdullah II bin Hussein, everywhere. Abdullah’s mug adorns the interior of every government office, school, most restaurants, and many shops. Stickers emblazoned with the king’s face even grace the windows of many of Amman’s taxicabs. The Jordanian flag is nearly as ubiquitous as the King’s photograph. In store windows and on billboards, T-shirts and bumper stickers across the country, the red, black, green and white flag can be seen. The Jordanian government and those who wish to be in its favor are constantly trying to remind people on the street that Jordan is a nation of which one should be proud. These efforts to endear Jordanians to representations of their king and their flag are components of a process called political socialization. Political socialization is a process by which people come to form their political identities. Broadly, political socialization is the construction of one’s political self (see Merelman, 1972, p.135), and the use of messages and symbols is a part of this construction. In the case of pictures of King Abdullah II, it seems that Jordan’s government is trying, in a proactive way, to politically socialize its citizens to believe that the King is to be revered. For their part, Jordanian citizens displaying the king’s picture demonstrate that they have been politically socialized to believe that the king is worthy of respect (or at least deem it a wise professional decision to show support for the king). Political socialization involves much more than the presentation of national symbols, however. First conceptualized by Hyman in 1959, political socialization was defined as an individual’s “learning of social patterns corresponding to his societal positions as mediated through various agencies of society” (p.25). Formative school systems, peer groups, families, religious affiliations, and mass media systems are all “agents” of political socialization. Many of the assumptions in Hyman’s research go back to the writings in Plato’s Republic —such as the notion that societal forces can and should shape young generations of political participants—but Hyman provided a more official title and description of the process at a time when the world was gravely concerned with how young people are groomed to adhere to certain political values and behaviors. Hyman’s research put a strong emphasis on “learning” political norms and ideologies through society’s agents—reminiscent of, but predating, the social psychological focus of Albert Bandura’s (1963) social learning theory and the societal “lessons” described in the work of Gerbner (1970; 1977; 1998) in his articulations of cultivation analysis. This study focused on a specific societal agent—news media—and specifically on news consumption variables as they relate to political socialization measures. More precisely, this study examined news consumption and feelings toward the U.S. and Jordanian governments among 18 to 35 year-old Jordanians. While political socialization research burgeoned in the decades following Hyman’s treatise, scholarship