Elite Messages and Source Cues: Moving Beyond Partisanship

Race, partisanship, and perceptions of inter-minority commonality

“…These findings contradict a large body of work that shows African-Americans are strongly influenced by messages from African-American political leaders (Domke et al 2000;Hurley 1994, 1996;Zaller 1992). What accounts of the comparative weakness of elites in directing African-American views on commonality?…”

“…As outlined above, a number of studies have found that messages from elites who share a respondent's racial identity are more influential in shaping opinion than messages from elites who do not share this identity (Domke et al 2000;Hurley 1994, 1996;Nelson, Sanbonmatsu, and McClerking 2007). Most notably, Hurley (1994, 1996) found that exposure to a fictional message concerning the black community delivered by Clarence Thomas or Jesse Jackson had a greater influence on black opinion than the same message delivered by Ted Kennedy or George Bush.…”

“…When elites are in agreement on an issue, the research shows that politically aware members of the public uniformly move in the direction argued for by political leaders. When political elites present conflicting messages on an issue, however, the opinions of the most politically aware members of the public (e.g., those most likely to receive the conflicting messages) reflect only the declarations of the political elites who most clearly reflect the partisan, ideological, or racial identity of the individual in question (Arceneaux 2008;Bolsen, Druckman, and Cook 2014;Domke et al 2000;Druckman et al 2013;Goren, Frederico, and Kittilson 2009;Hurley 1994, 1996;Lavine, Johnston, and Steenbergen 2012;Taber and Lodge 2006). In other words, elite opinion theory works best when characteristics of the audience, the elite communicators, and the message are considered together.…”

“…Indeed, a number of studies from the 1990s explored the "different leadership cues" that might matter for African-Americans and found that messages from African-American elites, regardless of the partisanship of the elite in question, were more influential in shaping how blacks interpret events than messages from elites who did not share this racial identity (Domke et al 2000;Hurley 1994, 1996). More recently, Nelson, Sanbonmatsu, and McClerking (2007) looked for elite leadership effects on African-American opinion in an extensive study of attitudes towards police misconduct.…”

News Framing and Cueing of Issue Regimes

“…This perspective takes as a given that a vast majority of citizens do not directly experience politics, nor do they hold strong, stable attitudes about many social topics; rather, people form attitudes "on the fly," often in response to particular features of the information environment (Iyengar 1991;Zaller 1992). In essence, contextual features serve as heuristics that allow individuals to make cognitive shortcuts when processing political information (Domke et al 2000;Kuklinski and Hurley 1994;Mondak 1993). Emphasis on certain issues in news coverage is thought to prime the public to focus upon those considerations as standards for social judgment.…”