Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 The Messenger Overwhelming the Message: The Impact of Ideological Cues on Information Acquisition, Counterarguing, and Perceptions of Media Bias Joel F. Turner Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES THE MESSENGER OVERWHELMING THE MESSAGE: THE IMPACT OF IDEOLOGICAL CUES ON INFORMATION ACQUISITION, COUNTERARGUING, AND PERCEPTIONS OF MEDIA BIAS By JOEL F. TURNER, JR. A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester 2007 The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Joel F. Turner, Jr. defended on March 27, 2007. __________________________ Robert Jackson Professor Directing Dissertation __________________________ Tim Salmon Outside Committee Member __________________________ Jeffery Mondak Committee Member __________________________ Charles Barrilleaux Committee Member __________________________ Cherie Maestas Committee Member Approved: ________________________________ Dale L. Smith Chair, Department of Political Science ________________________________ David Rasmussen Dean, College of Social Sciences The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation benefits greatly from the insightful comments of those gracious enough to share their wisdom. I would like to most sincerely thank Jeff Mondak for his guidance in this undertaking. His commitment to this project has been unwavering and his timely feedback was critical to the completion of this dissertation. I am thankful to Bob Jackson, whose methodological suggestions and vast knowledge of the English language resulted in a dissertation that was far more polished than it otherwise would have been. I am grateful to Charles Barrilleaux, who has always been willing to share wisdom and expertise on matters ranging from this project to the job market to college football. I would like to thank Cherie Maestas for her helpful comments, as well as for bringing me on board for other exciting research endeavors. I am also indebted to Tim Salmon for his insight on this study as well as for agreeing to serve on a committee outside of his department. I would also like to thank Rod Lewis for his assistance, as well as for serving as a constant source of support during my graduate school experience. I am grateful to Karen Halperin for her assistance in both conducting this experiment and collecting the data used in this analysis. I would also like to thank Mary Schneider, our department’s academic coordinator, for always having the right answer to any question we had, and basically ensuring that the department functioned properly on a daily basis. I would also like to extend a special thank you to Phil Streetman and WSST-TV 55 in Cordele, GA for their assistance in creating the videotapes used in this study. Without your help, getting this project off the ground would not have been possible. Finally, I wish to thank my family - Candice, Mom, and Dad - for their encouragement and patience in pursuit of this goal. I could not have reached this point without their support. I especially wish to thank my beautiful wife Candice for her unwavering confidence in my ability to complete this endeavor despite setbacks along the way. Your patience and willingness to sacrifice on many things in order to allow me to pursue my goals has not gone unnoticed, and I only hope that over time I will be able to repay your love and support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………...v List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….vi Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..vii INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY………………………………………………………...14 THE MESSENGER OVERWHELMING THE MESSAGE: IDEOLOGICAL CUES AND PERCEPTIONS OF BIAS IN TELEVISION NEWS……………………..30 MEMORABLE ENCOUNTERS: IDEOLOGY, INFORMATION ACQUISITION, AND TELEVISION NEWS…………………………………………..46 I HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SAYING, I JUST DON’T BELIEVE YOU: COUNTERARGUING AND DISSONANT MEDIA SOURCES………………………68 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………..81 APPENDIX A……………………………………………………………………………88 APPENDIX B……………………………………………………………………………96 APPENDIX C……………………………………………………………………………97 APPENDIX D……………………………………………………………………………98 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………105 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH…………………………………………………………...115 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1…………………………………………………………………………………25 Table 2.2…………………………………………………………………………………26 Table 2.3…………………………………………………………………………………27 Table 2.4…………………………………………………………………………………28 Table 2.5…………………………………………………………………………………29 Table 3.1…………………………………………………………………………………43 Table 3.2…………………………………………………………………………………44 Table 4.1…………………………………………………………………………………63 Table 4.2…………………………………………………………………………………64 Table 4.3…………………………………………………………………………………65 Table 5.1…………………………………………………………………………………79 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1………………………………………………………………………………...45 Figure 4.1………………………………………………………………………………...66 Figure 4.2………………………………………………………………………………...67 Figure 5.1………………………………………………………………………………...80 vi ABSTRACT Public opinion surveys have demonstrated that many Americans perceive ideological bias in television news. For many individuals, the two networks that epitomize this bias are Fox News Channel and CNN, the networks that many believe represent the conservative and liberal viewpoints, respectively. These perceptions persist despite the best efforts of those in the academic community, who have failed to uncover systematic evidence of the existence of ideological bias in the television news media. In this study, I argue that attaching the “CNN” and “Fox News Channel” labels to news stories essentially functions as an ideological signal, cueing viewers to the ideological tone of the coverage they are about to watch. In addition, I argue that these perceptions of ideological bias can have significant consequences for the ability of viewers to properly process the information presented on the news broadcast. An experimental design was utilized to investigate these questions, and the results provide support for my expectations: the “Fox News Channel” and “CNN” labels do appear to function as a signal regarding the ideological nature of the coverage, and this signal does significantly influence the ability of viewers to acquire and retain the information presented on the broadcast. vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Public opinion surveys have consistently demonstrated that a large portion of the citizenry perceive an ideological bias within television news media (Pew 1997; American Society of Newspaper Editors 1998; Gallup 2003). For many Americans the two television news outlets that epitomize this bias are CNN and Fox News Channel, which according to Nielsen1 ratings are the two most popular twenty-four hour news networks. Although surprisingly little academic research has been done on these specific networks, various polling estimates have demonstrated that roughly one-third of the American public perceives Fox News Channel as being overtly conservative, and a comparable portion views CNN as being liberally biased.2 Given the well-established role of the news media as political informant to the American public, it is important to evaluate two questions: first, why do individuals perceive ideological bias in the news media, and, second, does this perceived ideological bias influence how people process television news? There is a distinct possibility that the widespread view among citizens that Fox News Channel and CNN are ideologically biased poses a substantial obstacle to informing the American public about politics. Perceiving a report from a specific news outlet as biased could raise cognitive roadblocks that prevent a citizen from properly acquiring and processing the information. Clearly, this circumstance raises many intriguing possibilities for research regarding information processing as it relates to 1 Recent numbers have Fox News Channel winning the cable news wars, with CNN a close second. However, depending on when and in what manner one examines the ratings, either network could be in first place with the other in second place. However, the important fact for this study is that both news networks consistently outpace their cable news competitors. 2 Poll conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group in November 2004. 1 television news. Therefore, the goal of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of information processing as it relates to information received from the televised news media. Although this examination will focus specifically on Fox News Channel and CNN, the conclusions derived from this study should have implications for individuals who perceive CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, or any other television news network to be ideologically biased. I will be focusing on Fox News Channel and CNN specifically because survey research has demonstrated that a larger percentage of individuals perceive these two networks to be the most ideologically biased. However, because the nature and effects of perceptions of ideological bias in television news are most likely are similar elsewhere, the information gleaned from the study of these two networks should apply to other news networks as well. Academic Studies of Media Bias Although a number of previous scholars have failed to uncover any