Passive Learning: When the Media Environment Is the Message

Zukin, Cliff; Snyder, Robin M.

doi:10.1086/268864

Cited by 147 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Furthermore, these public service effects proved robust across different panel specifications. Thus, these findings support the notion of inadvertent exposure and passive, or incidental, learning from public service television (Krugman & Hartley, 1970;Prior, 2007;Schoenbach & Lauf, 2002;Zukin & Snyder, 1984). While motivated viewers do learn from public service television, those who gain most from these channels tend to be less interested in politics and therefore not very likely to engage in active forms of information processing.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

“…First, from a theoretical perspective, the results from the longitudinal analysis presented here lend relatively strong empirical support to theories of passive or inadvertent forms of learning (i.e., information acquisition taking place in the absence of interest and motivation; Krugman & Hartley, 1970;Zukin & Snyder, 1984). Given the presence of extensive learning opportunities provided by the political information environment (Delli Carpini, Keeter & Kennamer, 1994;Esser et al, 2012;Jerit et al, 2006), viewers seem to pick up political and current affairs information simply from being frequently exposed to such content.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Television Channel Content Profiles and Differential Knowledge Growth: A Test of the Inadvertent Learning Hypothesis Using Panel Data

Shehata

Hopmann²,

Nord

et al. 2015

Political Communication

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This study uses four waves of panel data to analyze inadvertent learning-that is, learning in the absence of interest or motivation-from watching public service television channels. Previous research suggests that motivation-based gaps in political knowledge are at least partly a function of the political information opportunities provided by the major television channels in a country, which influence the likelihood of being inadvertently exposed to news and current affairs programs. The present study puts the inadvertent learning hypothesis to a thorough empirical test by analyzing individual-level growth in knowledge over time, based on panel data collected during five months leading up to the Swedish 2010 national election. Using multilevel growth curve modeling and an extensive battery of surveillance knowledge questions, the results show not only (a) that public service channel viewing was related to learning, but also (b) that knowledge growth occurred among public service viewers independently of their political motivation and news attention, and (c) that such learning was even more pronounced among viewers lacking an interest in politics. The findings are discussed in light of ongoing media environmental transformations as well as cross-national comparative media systems research.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

Television Channel Content Profiles and Differential Knowledge Growth: A Test of the Inadvertent Learning Hypothesis Using Panel Data

Shehata

Hopmann²,

Nord

et al. 2015

Political Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While people make choices from the environment they are presented with, they often have little choice over the environment itself (which is set by editorial decisions and political agendas; Boczkowski 2010;McCombs and Shaw 1972;Baumgartner and Jones 1993). Individuals are often incidentally exposed to the information that they choose to avoid (Lee 2009;Tewksbury, Weaver, and Maddex 2001;Zukin and Snyder 1984). Operating within an environment that disproportionately favors or disproportionately opposes your predispositions would therefore 7 The present research expands on this extant work by examining the effects of information choices outside the scope of cable news and the campaign simulations introduced by Lau and Redlawsk (2006).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Informational Basis for Mass Polarization

Leeper

2014

Public Opinion Quarterly

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If nothing else, democratic politics requires compromise. Mass polarization, where citizens disagree strongly and those disagreements magnify over time, presents obvious threats to democratic well-being. The overwhelming presumption is that if polarization is occurring, a substantial portion of it is attributable to fragmentation attendant an increasingly choice-laden media environment where individuals expose themselves only to opinion-reinforcing information. Under what conditions does mass opinion polarization occur? Through two over-time, laboratory experiments involving information choice behavior, this paper considers, first, the effects of slant in one's information environment on over-time opinion dynamics and, second, the moderating role of attitude importance on those effects. The experiments reveal that, despite similar information search behavior, those with strong attitudes are dogmatic, resisting even substantial contrary evidence; those with weak attitudes by contrast hear opposing arguments and develop moderate opinions regardless of the prevalence of those arguments in their environment. Evaluations of information, rather than information search behavior per se, explain why individuals with strong attitudes polarize and those with weak attitudes do not. Polarization therefore seems to require more than media fragmentation and, in fact, a more important factor may be the strength of citizens' prior attitudes on particular issues.If nothing else, democratic politics requires compromise. Mass polarization, where citizens disagree strongly and those disagreements magnify over time, therefore seems to present obvious threats to democratic well-being. Political science has demonstrated a modulating, though frequently uneasy, view of political polarization. This ambivalence reflects the ap- 1 party contrast without mass polarization.1 Just a decade later, McClosky, Hoffmann, and O'Hara (1960) demonstrated that the two-party system offered clear differences between parties without undesirable polarization.2 In more recent times, McClosky, Hoffmann, and O'Hara's assessment of American politics seems to resonate much more with the conclusion drawn by Fiorina and Abrams (2008) that "the American public as a whole is no more polarized today than it was a generation ago" (584) than with the contemporary observation by Hetherington (2001) that "Greater ideological polarization in Congress has clarified public perceptions of party ideology, which has produced a more partisan electorate" (629), but the polarization literature is still growing (see, for example, Levendusky 2009Levendusky , 2010Levendusky , 2011Stroud 2011;Carmines and Ensley 2004).The overwhelming presumption is that if polarization is occurring, a substantial portion of that polarization is attributable to the fragmentation attendant an increasingly choice- which is necessary to avoid faulty ecological inferences about opinion dynamics (Druckman 1 "If the two parties do not develop alternative programs that can be executed, the voter's frustrat...

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“…Another feature of the traditional media environment is that the media exposure offers audiences not only an active but also a passive learning process [23,24]. Robinson [25] indicated that television news reaches two types of viewers: the advertents, who follow the news because they enjoy politics, and the inadvertents, who fall into the news accidentally.…”

Section: Specialists In the Changing Media Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Citizen as Issue Specialists in a Changing Media Environment

Jang

Park

2013

Future Internet

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Abstract:Although recent research suggests that the selective nature of new media helps foster issue specialists, little empirical evidence has been documented, mostly due to theoretical and methodological limitations. Extending the concept of issue publics, the present study proposes a method to estimate the degree to which an individual is a specialist-or a generalist-type citizen. Applying the method to the 2008 American National Election Studies data, the study reveals various characteristics of specialists and generalists. The results indicate that specialist-type citizens are positively associated with online news use, but negatively associated with conventional news media, such as television, newspaper, and radio. The implications of the growth of specialists as well as the validity of the proposed method are discussed.

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Passive Learning: When the Media Environment Is the Message

Cited by 147 publications

References 8 publications

Television Channel Content Profiles and Differential Knowledge Growth: A Test of the Inadvertent Learning Hypothesis Using Panel Data

Television Channel Content Profiles and Differential Knowledge Growth: A Test of the Inadvertent Learning Hypothesis Using Panel Data

The Informational Basis for Mass Polarization

The Citizen as Issue Specialists in a Changing Media Environment

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