Changing Minds or Changing Channels? Media Effects in the Era of Expanded Choice Kevin Arceneaux Martin Johnson Associate Professor of Political Science Associate Professor of Political Science Institute of Public Affairs Affiliate Media & Communication Research Lab Temple University University of California, Riverside
[email protected] [email protected] July 17, 2012 Forthcoming at the University of Chicago Press Chapter 1 The Expansion of Choice Walk into the average American home, turn on the television, and enter a variegated world of news and entertainment. The old standbys of the broadcast networks are on the line-up, with serious news programs at the appointed hour and soap operas, game shows, sitcoms, and dramas the rest of the time. Venture into the channels on most cable packages and find ever more, specialized viewing choices. A half-dozen channels or more are devoted to the news 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The shows on these networks range from the sedate anchor-behind-a-desk format to lively opinionated talk shows where the hosts and guests lob invective and unsubstantiated claims without compunction. Keep flipping the channel and happen on all sorts of diversions from the worries and cares of the day. On MTV, to take one example of many, cameras follow Jersey Shore star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino to the gym, tanning salon, laundromat, nightclubs, and back home. Elsewhere on cable television, viewers can find endless depictions of more interesting things like people building unique motorcycles, decorating impossibly elaborate cakes, crafting beautiful tattoos, rescuing endangered animals, and catching catfish with their bare hands.