Primacy Effects of The Daily Show and National TV News Viewing: Young Viewers, Political Gratifications, and Internal Political Self-Efficacy

This study examines program ordering effects derived from viewing CNN television news relative to The Daily Show on the political gratifications associated with both types of information sources. Internal political self-efficacy is assessed as an individual-difference moderator. Main primacy effects are found on the gratifications associated with both national television news viewing and The Daily Show viewing. However, The Daily Show primacy effect on the political gratifications associated with national television news viewing was isolated among those participants who retain low internal political self-efficacy. Ramifications for these findings are outlined and future lines of research are summarized.

[1]  D. Campbell,et al.  Recency and primacy in persuasion as a function of the timing of speeches and measurements. , 1959, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[2]  Dhavan V. Shah.  Civic Engagement, Interpersonal Trust, and Television Use: An Individual-Level Assessment of Social Capital , 1998 .

[3]  Political rallies: Their uses and effects , 1981 .

[4]  R. Lance Holbert,et al.  The role of communication in the formation of an issue-based citizenry , 2002 .

[5]  R. Niemi,et al.  Measuring Internal Political Efficacy in the 1988 National Election Study , 1991, American Political Science Review.

[6]  M. McCombs,et al.  News Influence on Our Pictures of the World , 2002 .

[7]  Russell M. Tisinger,et al.  Dispelling Late-Night Myths , 2006 .

[8]  P. Cantor.  The Simpsons , 1999 .

[9]  Craig Leonard Brians,et al.  Campaign Issue Knowledge and Salience: Comparing Reception from TV Commercials, TV News and Newspapers , 1996 .

[10]  Jody C. Baumgartner,et al.  The Daily Show Effect , 2006 .

[11]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  Curtis P. Haugtvedt,et al.  Message Order Effects in Persuasion: An Attitude Strength Perspective , 1994 .

[13]  R. Lance Holbert,et al.  A Typology for the Study of Entertainment Television and Politics , 2005 .

[14]  L. Becker.  Measurement of Gratifications , 1979 .

[15]  Chester A. Insko,et al.  Theories of attitude change , 1967 .

[16]  F. H. Knower.  Experimental studies of changes in attitude. II. A study of the effect of printed argument on changes in attitude. , 1936 .

[17]  S. Chaffee,et al.  Measurement and Effects of Attention to Media News , 1986 .

[18]  Jack M. McLeod,et al.  Another Look At the Agenda-Setting Function of the Press , 1974 .

[19]  C. I. Hovland.  Human learning and retention , 1951 .

[20]  N. Anderson.  PRIMACY EFFECTS IN PERSONALITY IMPRESSION FORMATION USING A GENERALIZED ORDER EFFECT PARADIGM. , 1965, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  A. Eagly,et al.  Attitudes and opinions. , 1978, Annual review of psychology.

[22]  S. Robert Lichter,et al.  The Political Content of Late Night Comedy , 2003 .

[23]  D. Weaver,et al.  Voter Learning and Interest in the 2000 Presidential Election: Did the Media Matter? , 2001 .

[24]  M. Sherif,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1946, Psychological review.

[25]  W. Gamson.  Policy Discourse and the Language of the Life-World , 1999 .

[26]  D. Young,et al.  Late-Night Comedy in Election 2000: Its Influence on Candidate Trait Ratings and the Moderating Effects of Political Knowledge and Partisanship , 2004 .

[27]  C. I. Hovland.  The Order Of Presentation In Persuasion , 1966 .

[28]  Diana C. Mutz.  Leading Horses to Water: Confessions of a Daily Show Junkie , 2004 .

[29]  Dietram A. Scheufele,et al.  Framing as a theory of media effects , 1999 .

[30]  Dhavan V. Shah,et al.  Environmental Concern, Patterns of Television Viewing, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Integrating Models of Media Consumption and Effects , 2003 .

[31]  Television Politics: Its Uses and Influence , 1970 .

[32]  M. Just.  Soft News Goes to War: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy in the New Media Age , 2006, Perspectives on Politics.

[33]  H. Lasswell.  The structure and function of communication in society , 2007 .

[34]  L. Feinberg,et al.  Introduction to satire , 1967 .

[35]  Stephen Earl Bennett.  Young Americans' Indifference to Media Coverage of Public Affairs , 1998 .

[36]  Xinshu Zhao,et al.  Political Knowledge and the Campaign Media of 1992 , 1994 .

[37]  Andrew Stott,et al.  The Literature of Satire , 2006 .

[38]  Steven H. Chaffee,et al.  CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENTS VERSUS TELEVISION NEWS AS SOURCES OF POLITICAL ISSUE INFORMATION , 1995 .

[39]  Thomas J. Johnson,et al.  Online and in the Know: Uses and Gratifications of the Web for Political Information , 2002 .

[40]  R. Lana.  Familiarity and the order of presentation of persuasive communications. , 1961, Journal of abnormal and social psychology.

[41]  E. Bloom,et al.  Satire's Persuasive Voice , 1979 .

[42]  R. L. Holbert,et al.  Intramedia Mediation: The Cumulative and Complementary Effects of News Media Use , 2005 .

[43]  Michael E. Morrell.  Survey and Experimental Evidence for a Reliable and Valid Measure of Internal Political Efficacy , 2003 .

[44]  M. Caldwell,et al.  Public opinion and the communication of consent , 1996 .

[45]  Richard G. Niemi,et al.  Political efficacy and trust: A report on the NES pilot study items , 1990 .

[46]  Jon A. Krosnick,et al.  Altering the Foundations of Support for the President Through Priming , 1990 .

[47]  Philip Palmgreen,et al.  Relations Between Gratifications Sought and Obtained , 1980 .

[48]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches , 1981 .

[49]  Greg G. Armfield,et al.  The West Wing as Endorsement of the U.S. Presidency: Expanding the Bounds of Priming in Political Communication , 2003 .

[50]  Geoffrey Baym,et al.  The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism , 2005 .

[51]  A. Rubin.  The uses-and-gratifications perspective of media effects. , 2002 .

[52]  R. Andrew Holbrook,et al.  Agenda-Setting and Priming in Prime Time Television: Crime Dramas as Political Cues , 2005 .

[53]  S. S. Stevens,et al.  Handbook of experimental psychology , 1951 .

[54]  Diana C. Mutz.  The Future of Political Communication Research: Reflections on the Occasion of Steve Chaffee's Retirement from Stanford University , 2001 .