THE VIEW FROM THE OVAL OFFICE: THE AUDIENCE EFFECTS OF PRESIDENTIAL APPEARANCES ON ENTERTAINMENT TALK SHOWS A Masters Thesis. Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts In Communication, Culture, and Technology. By Kathryn Collier House, B.A. Washington, DC April 21, 2011 Copyright 2011 by Kathryn Collier House All Rights Reserved ii THE VIEW FROM THE OVAL OFFICE: THE AUDIENCE EFFECTS OF PRESIDENTIAL APPEARANCES ON ENTERTAINMENT TALK SHOWS Kathryn C. House, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Diana M. Owen, Ph.D. ABSTRACT After Bill Clinton’s famous appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show during the 1992 presidential campaign, politicians began incorporating entertainment television shows into their campaign media repertoires. In this study, I label appearances by political figures on entertainment shows as politainment. Politainment allows a politician to display a more personal and appealing side of his or her persona, while also reaching a different audience than those who regularly follow traditional news outlets. While past presidents ceased these appearances after Election Day, President Obama took the politainment media strategy with him to the White House and has appeared with relative frequency on a variety of entertainment shows. This study uses President Obama’s July 29, 2010 appearance on the daytime talk show The View as a case study for exploring the content of presidential politainment and its effects on audiences. Using a quantitative content analysis of this episode of The View, I demonstrate that presidential politainment contains substantive policy content in addition to lighter banter that shows a more relatable side of the president. In addition, I conducted quasi-experimental focus groups to examine audience effects. The focus groups yielded survey data and discussion by the participants regarding two clips from Obama’s appearance on The View. A quantitative analysis of this data found clear attitudinal shifts after viewing the clips regarding President Obama personally as well as iii the Obama Administration’s policies. This study underscores the importance of examining politainment as a distinct type of soft news and recognizing politainment as a new and unique form of political communication. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis project would not be possible without many people in my life. First and foremost, I would like to thank Diana Owen, my adviser and trusted mentor. There are no words to encompass just how grateful I am for your guidance and unwavering support, not just on my thesis, but on all the decisions I have made over the last two years. I am not just a better researcher and writer because of you, but a better human being. I would like to thank my second reader, Stephen Farnsworth who kept raising the bar higher and insisted that I regard my own abilities and potential as a scholar seriously. A special thanks to Hugh Cloke and Beth McKeown for letting me tag along as your Teaching Assistant these last few years and keeping me sane. You showed me how teaching is the truly fun and rewarding component of an academic life. I will miss our thrice-weekly encounters more than you can imagine. As always, evermore thanks to all of my family and my future in-laws for the constant encouragement and for at least pretending you knew what my thesis was about. I can’t overstate how lucky and blessed all of you make me feel on a daily basis. Like most of the recent milestones in my life, this thesis would not be possible without Rob, who encouraged me to be the nerd I always was and supported me without hesitation every step of the way. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 The Arsenio Effect....................................................................................................................... 1 The 2008 Campaign in Context .................................................................................................. 3 Previous Research ...................................................................................................................... 5 The Case Study............................................................................................................................ 7 Outline of Chapters..................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2: Literature Review.................................................................................................... 11 Presidents and the Press: George Washington to Andrew Jackson......................................... 11 Gossip and Scandal: The Rise of the Penny Press and Yellow Journalism.............................. 12 Presidents and the Press: Teddy Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower ......................................... 13 From Lapdogs to Junkyard Dogs ............................................................................................. 14 What is Meant by News Today?................................................................................................ 16 Hard News ................................................................................................................................ 17 Soft News................................................................................................................................... 17 Infotainment .............................................................................................................................. 18 Politainment.............................................................................................................................. 19 He Said What? : The Content of Soft News & Politainment..................................................... 20 Who is Watching? ..................................................................................................................... 23 Audience Effects of Soft News................................................................................................... 25 Political Knowledge.................................................................................................................. 26 Political Engagement................................................................................................................ 27 Selectivity Bias.......................................................................................................................... 28 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 29 Chapter 3: The View as a Case Study ....................................................................................... 31 The View Debuts ...................................................................................................................... 32 Early Days and the Successful Formula................................................................................... 33 Rotating Hosts, Emerging Tensions on the Set......................................................................... 35 Rosie O’Donnell Fans the Partisan Flames ............................................................................. 37 In The Election Year, The View Becomes a Political Staging Ground..................................... 38 Post-Election, Politics Become the Usual ................................................................................ 41 Chapter 4: Content Analysis of President Obama’s Appearance on The View .................... 43 Content Coding ......................................................................................................................... 44 Intercoder Reliability................................................................................................................ 46 Overview of The Episode’s Segments ....................................................................................... 46 Analysis: Distribution of Speaking Turns................................................................................. 48 Analysis: Topic and Thematic Composition of the Episode ..................................................... 50 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 54 Chapter 5: Audience Analysis—Who was Exposed to and Aware of President Obama’s Appearance on The View............................................................................................................ 56 The Audience for The View ...................................................................................................... 56 vi Who’s Paying Attention? .......................................................................................................... 58 Concepts & Indicators .............................................................................................................. 59 Statistical Analysis.................................................................................................................... 60 Finding: Crosstabs ................................................................................................................... 60 Findings: Correlations with Other News Stories ..................................................................... 66 Comparison: Predictors of Awareness Levels for