Objective. We explore whether the effect of watching television on support for democracy is contingent on the type of media system. In countries with well-developed public broadcasting systems, watching television news should enhance support for democracy. In more market-oriented systems with more superficial and episodic news content, watching television news should weaken democratic attachments. Methods. We utilize Wave 6 of the World Values Survey to investigate the relationship between watching television news and support for democracy in the United States, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Results. Watching television news in public broadcasting systems increases the importance one places on living in a democracy and evaluations of democratic governance. Watching television news in market-oriented systems increases support for authoritarian political systems. Conclusion. The effect of watching television news on democratic attitudes is contingent on media system. Public broadcasting systems enhance democratic attitudes while market-oriented systems weaken these democratic attachments.
For most of the past two decades, the United States pursued a policy leveraging its traditional NATO partners to secure Afghanistan’s future against the Taliban with little lasting success. However, in a dramatic reversal of U.S. policy in July 2018, President Trump ordered the start of direct talks between the United States and Taliban with the goal of internationalizing Afghan security. We argue that this move in 2018 by the United States can be understood as an attempt toward forming a transnational community around Afghan security by allowing non-allied nations greater voice and agency in Afghanistan’s political future. However, current theories of transnational public sphere are unable to account for such processes. Thus, the primary aim of this study is development of a theory of transnational foreign policy sphere formation. Drawing upon Wessler et al.’s (2008) four-step process of transnational public sphere development, we conceptualize this process as one of strategic narrative (dis)alignment across and within foreign nations’ media reporting on a common issue of concern. We then use media narratives reporting on Afghanistan’s political future as an empirical case study to demonstrate our theory, by examining over 2000 news articles from 17 different Chinese, Russian, U.S., and Afghani media outlets from February 2017 to January 2020. Theoretically, our study advances research into the transnational public sphere by examining their (dis)formation over time as well as the limits and opportunities of transnational public sphere emergence outside of European contexts and on foreign policy issues among publics with very different sociopolitical interests and cultures.
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