Interview Effects: Theory and Evidence for the Impact of Televised Political Interviews on Viewer Attitudes

Abstract

Although political interviews have been a mainstay of U.S. television, they are undertheorized in the media effects tradition. This article seeks to ground possible interview effects into theory-particularly to recent developments in the study of incivility and its effect on public opinion. An experiment-based study finds that viewers are likely to think more negatively about journalists in an environment marked by uncivil interviewing. At the same time, exposure to interviews perceived as not sufficiently adversarial could also reduce trust in journalists, which suggests that the effect extends beyond the question of incivility, depending on viewers' expectations. Beyond the particular findings, this study indicates the possibilities of a research agenda centering on political televised interviews and their social implications.

Perceptions of Uncivil Discourse Online: An Examination of Types and Predictors

“…Employing the Big Five gives us a broadly understood personality baseline, while our second measure—conflict avoidance—allows us to measure a personality characteristic that has been tied more directly to incivility per se. Indeed, inclination toward conflict avoidance has been included as a control variable in some past analyses of incivility (e.g., Ben-Porath, 2010; Muddiman, 2013), and one study found that it interacted with incivility to help explain levels of political trust (Mutz & Reeves, 2005).…”

News Values, Cognitive Biases, and Partisan Incivility in Comment Sections

“…Differences in the ability to detect incivility also may lead journalists to allow uncivil comments. Individuals of different ages, genders, conflict avoidance levels, and partisan group identities perceive incivility differently (e.g., Ben‐Porath, ; Muddiman, in press; Mutz, ). Due to this variability, rejecting a comment because it is “uncivil” may seem like a subjective and unfair decision.…”

Negativity Bias or Backlash: Interaction With Civil and Uncivil Online Political News Content

“…To amplify the contrast between negative and positive news, we test whether news coverage of politicians behaving with different levels of incivility influences the way individuals interact with online news. Incivility is broadly understood as a negative violation of political norms (e.g., Ben-Porath, 2010; Sinopoli, 1995). Although incivility has been notoriously difficult to conceptualize, two general approaches to political incivility have emerged: a personal level and a public level of incivility.…”