Priming and Media Impact on the Evaluations of the President's Performance

Abstract

The period between August 1990 and early November 1992 was characterized by two “issue regimes,” the Gulf War and an economic recession. Analysis of aggregate media content and opinion poll data shows that President George Bush's job approval ratings were closely tied to the changes in the salience of these two issues. Guided by priming theory, hypotheses were formulated and tested concerning media effects on voters' evaluations of President Bush. Results show that the pattern of forming Bush's approval ratings is related to two different issue regimes. The total dominance of the public arena by one issue during an issue regime sets the foundation of Bush's overall approval ratings. However, direct media priming effects are found limited. Implications of these results are discussed.

Navigating Public Prejudices: The Impact of Media and Attitudes on High-Profile Female Political Leaders

“…Not only does media commentary help people determine their attitudes on political issues and what issues are important (Domke et al 1999;Domke et al 1998;Hester and Gibson 2003;Iyengar and Kinder 1987;Kiousis 2003;Krosnick and Brannon 1993;Krosnick and Kinder 1990;McCombs and Reynolds 2002;McCombs and Shaw 1972), it also influences evaluations of specific politicians (Iyengar et al 1984;Krosnick and Kinder 1990;Miller and Krosnick 2000;Pan and Kosicki 1997;Stoker 1993). For example, Krosnick and Kinder (1990) compared the public's opinion of President Ronald Reagan before and after the Iran-Contra issue, a significant event with extensive media coverage.…”

“…Indeed, holding gender stereotypes, a type of worldview, measurably impacts individuals' evaluations of targets, such as female politicians (Hansen and Hansen 1988;Hansen and Krygowski 1994;Pan and Kosicki 1997;Power et al 1996). For instance, participants exposed to rock music videos portraying men and women in a stereotypical manner judged a woman in a subsequent video in a gender stereotypical manner, rating her as less dominant (Hansen and Hansen 1988).…”

Bottlenecks in the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the coverage of the first and second intifada in the Flemish press

“…For instance, the priming effect (e.g. Iyengar and Kinder, 1987;Krosnick and Brannon, 1993;Krosnick and Kinder, 1990;Pan and Kosicki, 1997;McCombs and Reynolds, 2002) is 'especially one of promoting certain evaluative criteria and it plays a part in attempts to manage news' (McQuail, 2005: 514). Framing theory, on the other hand, specifically focuses on journalistic frames in media content and how these media frames influence their audiences in what they learn and how they think about certain issues (Dente Ross, 2003;Entman, 1991;Gamson, 1992;Gamson and Lasch;1983;McQuail, 2005;Semetko and Valkenburg, 2000).…”

Monitoring by the financial press and forced CEO turnover

“…One way media attention affects perceptions is by deciding on what issues, events, people, and organizations are newsworthy, thereby focusing attention on some issues and distracting attention away from other subjects (Price and Tewksbury, 1997). For example, Pan and Kosicki (1997) find evidence that those issues receiving the most media coverage establish the basis by which most citizens judge the performance of political leaders. Media attention also affects perceptions by the manner in which the issue or event is presented (Gamson, 1992).…”