Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
When MSNBC or Fox News Airs in Public, Does It Make You Mad?
The-Conversation
By The Conversation
Published 6 years ago on
September 12, 2018

Share

Have you been traveling and noticed that all the televisions in an airport terminal were set to CNN? Or grabbed a drink at a bar and realized that Fox News was being broadcast to its customers?
You might grouse that you’re being forced to watch something that doesn’t jive with your political views. Or maybe you think it’s no big deal – your views are already fully formed, so you can just tune it out.
However, more than three decades of academic research and eight years of my own work on media suggest that the presence of cable news on television in shared public spaces does influence us – just not in the way you might think.

Portrait of the University of Florida professor Frank Waddell
Opinion
Frank Waddell

‘It’s Affecting You, Not Me’

Studies from communication science tell us that the effects unfold in two steps.
First, audiences will often overestimate the influence of media on the other people in the room, while underestimating how broadcasts influence their own views and beliefs.
This is called the “third-person effect,” and it’s most likely to happen when people don’t want the media to influence other people.
For example, say a conservative woman who is a regular viewer of Fox News dines at a restaurant that has MSNBC playing. She’s more likely to think that the broadcast wields power over the other customers, without taking into account the effect that her own regular consumption of Fox News has on her own views.
The second part of the process involves what communications scholars call “the influence of presumed influence model.”
Initially tested on how anti-smoking ads influence groups of young people – and since applied to a range of topics including politics – its central tenet is that if you presume someone is being influenced by media, you’ll change your own behaviors.
Such changes might involve trying to mitigate the influence of media on others. For example, one study found that if you think pornography has a bad influence on others, you might be more likely to support media censorship of pornographic content.

The cable news channels airing in airport terminals are often predetermined: Airports sign contracts with the parent companies of the news channels, which pay them to broadcast their content.
Another study looked at political ads. It found that if you believe others are seeing – and being affected by – political ads on behalf of a candidate you don’t support, you might be more likely to vote in that election in order to prevent that politician from winning.
Not all behaviors are active, however. When you think your views are in the minority, you’re more likely to be passive in your response to media. So if a liberal goes to a barbershop in a conservative city like Colorado Springs and hears Rush Limbaugh on the radio, they’ll be less likely to ask the barber to switch the station or start a conversation about politics.
This isn’t exactly a good thing. Scholars believe that when you believe you hold attitudes that are out of step with the majority, it can lead to a “spiral of silence,” in which you’re less likely to express personal opinions for fear of rejection.

Choosing the Channels

If televisions in public spaces can influence perceived opinions or political behavior, who’s selecting the stations in the first place?
The stations being broadcast in restaurants or hotel lobbies might simply be the decision of a business owner or building manager. Most likely, they’re assuming that their political preferences are consistent with those of the public – a tendency known as the false consensus effect – and are choosing channels accordingly.

Airmen watch a televised Medal of Honor presentation on Fox News at Keesler Air Force in Mississippi in August.
Kemberly Groue

By comparison, the cable news channels airing in airport terminals are often predetermined: Airports sign contracts with the parent companies of the news channels, which pay them to broadcast their content.
Time Warner’s CNN airport package is the most widespread: 59 airports across the nation air CNN to an audience of 323 million annual travelers.
Fox News has criticized what it calls CNN’s “airport monopoly.” Thousands of people have signed petitions demanding the removal of CNN from airport televisions – a response to the perceived ideological slant of the channel.
These petitions are a clear example of the “influence of presumed influence model” in action. Because they fear CNN is exerting undue political influence on their fellow travelers, these petitioners – presumably conservative – seek to censor it.
In other words, the prospect of these broadcasts changing their own political views isn’t really what they’re upset about. They’re more concerned that CNN will shape the attitudes of others.
This might also explain why some partisan petitioners don’t simply advocate for something apolitical to air on airport TVs.
“Please replace [CNN] with either Fox News or Christian News Network,” a Change.org petitioner wrote.The Conversation
Frank Waddell, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Florida
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

DON'T MISS

Religion Has Been in Decline. This Christmas Seems Different.

DON'T MISS

California Limits Junk Fees: New Law Blocks Fines for Declined ATM Withdrawals

DON'T MISS

Research Finds Vaccines Are Not Behind the Rise in Autism. So What Is?

DON'T MISS

New ‘Superman’ Trailer Is Most Watched for Warner Bros., DC Comics Online

DON'T MISS

Elon Musk Is Creating His Own Texas Town. Hundreds Already Live There.

DON'T MISS

Amazon and Starbucks Workers Are Striking. What Does It Mean for Labor Under Trump?

DON'T MISS

CalFire Shares 2024’s Top Images. See Highlights of Intense Wildfire Season.

DON'T MISS

While Sherrod Motors to Boise, Entz’s Bulldogs Add a Coach, Transfers, Recruits

DON'T MISS

California and Texas Duke It Out for Worst State to Raise a Family

DON'T MISS

Musk Slams ‘Wokepedia’ for Biased Editing, Urges Donation Boycott

UP NEXT

Musk Slams ‘Wokepedia’ for Biased Editing, Urges Donation Boycott

UP NEXT

Explore the Holiday Magic in California’s Death Valley

UP NEXT

Opinion: Does Jesus Want Christians to Be Environmentalists?

UP NEXT

Who Is Making a Difference in Fresno? Explore This List of 2024’s Shining Stars

UP NEXT

Media Relations Expert Leaves City Hall for Valley Children’s Hospital

UP NEXT

SE Fresno Voters Have Their Pick of Familiar Candidates to Succeed Chavez

UP NEXT

Victims and Families React as Biden Spares the Lives of 37 Federal Death Row Inmates

UP NEXT

Trump Again Calls to Buy Greenland After Eyeing Canada and the Panama Canal

UP NEXT

House Ethics Committee Accuses Gaetz of ‘Regularly’ Paying for Sex With Women, Including Minor

UP NEXT

New Decisions Boost California’s Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, but Major Hurdles Remain

New ‘Superman’ Trailer Is Most Watched for Warner Bros., DC Comics Online

3 hours ago

Elon Musk Is Creating His Own Texas Town. Hundreds Already Live There.

4 hours ago

Amazon and Starbucks Workers Are Striking. What Does It Mean for Labor Under Trump?

4 hours ago

CalFire Shares 2024’s Top Images. See Highlights of Intense Wildfire Season.

22 hours ago

While Sherrod Motors to Boise, Entz’s Bulldogs Add a Coach, Transfers, Recruits

22 hours ago

California and Texas Duke It Out for Worst State to Raise a Family

23 hours ago

Musk Slams ‘Wokepedia’ for Biased Editing, Urges Donation Boycott

23 hours ago

Explore the Holiday Magic in California’s Death Valley

24 hours ago

Visalia Unlicensed Driver Smashes Into Home. No Injuries Reported.

1 day ago

Penn State’s Schumacher-Cawley Is 1st Female Coach to Win NCAA Volleyball Title

1 day ago

Religion Has Been in Decline. This Christmas Seems Different.

Opinion by Ross Douthat on Dec. 21, 2024. In March, I drove with my family up from Rome into the mountains of southeastern Umbria, to reach ...

20 minutes ago

Photo of a Christmas tree in the NORAD Tracks Santa Center at Peterson Air Force Base
20 minutes ago

Religion Has Been in Decline. This Christmas Seems Different.

2 hours ago

California Limits Junk Fees: New Law Blocks Fines for Declined ATM Withdrawals

An autistic boy with his mother at home in Texas, Aug. 5, 2023. There is no blood test or brain scan to determine who has autism, and with no singular cause, there is no singular culprit behind autism’s rise. (Callaghan O'Hare/The New York Times)
2 hours ago

Research Finds Vaccines Are Not Behind the Rise in Autism. So What Is?

3 hours ago

New ‘Superman’ Trailer Is Most Watched for Warner Bros., DC Comics Online

The SpaceX starship rocket near the Starbase launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas, Feb. 21, 2024. Employees of SpaceX have filed a formal petition to create the city of Starbase. (Meridith Kohut/The New York Times)
4 hours ago

Elon Musk Is Creating His Own Texas Town. Hundreds Already Live There.

4 hours ago

Amazon and Starbucks Workers Are Striking. What Does It Mean for Labor Under Trump?

22 hours ago

CalFire Shares 2024’s Top Images. See Highlights of Intense Wildfire Season.

22 hours ago

While Sherrod Motors to Boise, Entz’s Bulldogs Add a Coach, Transfers, Recruits

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend