{"id":9340,"date":"2017-06-10T02:01:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-10T02:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9340"},"modified":"2017-06-11T02:04:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T02:04:16","slug":"how-tv-cultivates-authoritarianism-and-helped-elect-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-tv-cultivates-authoritarianism-and-helped-elect-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"How TV cultivates authoritarianism \u2013 and helped elect Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Shanahan<\/a>, Indiana University<\/a><\/em> and Michael Morgan<\/a>, University of Massachusetts Amherst<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Many gallons of ink (and megabytes of electronic text) have been devoted to explaining the surprise victory of Donald Trump. <\/p>\n

Reasons range from white working-class resentment<\/a>, to FBI Director James Comey\u2019s decision to reopen the Hillary Clinton email investigation<\/a>, to low turnout<\/a>. All likely played some role. It would be a mistake to think the election turned on one single factor. <\/p>\n

However, a study we conducted during the campaign \u2013 just published in the Journal of Communication<\/a> \u2013 suggests an additional factor that should be added into the mix: television.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not talking about cable news or the billions in free media<\/a> given to Trump or political advertising.<\/p>\n

Rather, we\u2019re talking about regular, everyday television \u2013 the sitcoms, cop shows, workplace dramas and reality TV series that most heavy viewers consume for at least several hours a day \u2013 and the effect this might have on your political leanings.<\/p>\n

An authoritarian ethos<\/h2>\n

Studies from the past 40 years<\/a> have shown that regular, heavy exposure to television can shape your views on violence, gender, science, health, religion, minorities and more. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 20 years ago, we conducted studies<\/a> in the U.S. and Argentina that found that the more you watch television, the more likely you\u2019ll embrace authoritarian tendencies and perspectives. Heavy American and Argentinian television viewers have a greater sense of fear, anxiety and mistrust. They value conformity, see the \u201cother\u201d as a threat and are uncomfortable with diversity.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s probably a reason for this. Gender, ethnic and racial stereotypes continue to be prevalent<\/a> in many shows<\/a>. Television tends to distill complex issues into simpler forms, while the use of violence as an approach to solving problems is glorified. Many fictional programs, from \u201cHawaii Five-O\u201d to \u201cThe Flash,\u201d feature formulaic violence<\/a>, with a brave hero who protects people from danger and restores the rightful order of things. <\/p>\n

In short, television programs often feature an authoritarian ethos when it comes to how characters are valued and how problems are solved. <\/p>\n

Viewing habits and Trump support<\/h2>\n

Given this, we were intrigued when, during the campaign, we saw studies suggesting<\/a> that holding authoritarian values was a powerful predictor of support for Trump. <\/p>\n

We wondered: If watching television contributes to authoritarianism, and if authoritarianism is a driving force behind support for Trump, then might television viewing \u2013 indirectly, by way of cultivating authoritarianism \u2013 contribute to support for Trump?<\/p>\n

About two months before the party conventions were held, we conducted an online national survey with over 1,000 adults. We asked people about their preferred candidate. (At the time, the candidates in the race were Clinton, Sanders and Trump.) <\/p>\n

We then questioned them about their television viewing habits \u2013 how they consumed it, and how much time they spent watching. <\/p>\n

We also asked a series of questions used by political scientists to measure a person\u2019s authoritarian tendencies \u2013 specifically, which qualities are more important for a child to have: independence or respect for their elders; curiosity or good manners; self-reliance or obedience; being considerate or being well-behaved. (In each pair, the second answer is considered to reflect more authoritarian values.) <\/p>\n

Confirming our own earlier studies, heavy viewers scored higher on the authoritarian scale. And confirming others\u2019 studies, more authoritarian respondents strongly leaned toward Trump.<\/p>\n

More importantly, we also found that authoritarianism \u201cmediated\u201d the effect of watching a lot of television on support for Trump. That is, heavy viewing and authoritarianism, taken together in sequence, had a significant relationship with preference for Trump. This was unaffected by gender, age, education, political ideology, race and news viewing. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re not the first to note that entertainment can have political consequences. In a Slate article shortly after the election, writer David Canfield argued<\/a> that prime-time television is filled with programming that is \u201cxenophobic,\u201d \u201cfearmongering,\u201d \u201cbillionaire-boosting\u201d and \u201cscience-rejecting.\u201d What we think of \u201charmless prime-time escapism,\u201d he continued, actually \u201creinforces the exclusionary agenda put forth by the Trump campaign.\u201d Our data reveal that this was not simply speculation.<\/p>\n

None of this means that television played the decisive role in the triumph of Donald Trump. But Trump offered a persona that fit perfectly with the authoritarian mindset nurtured by television. <\/p>\n

\"TheWhat we think of as \u201cmere entertainment\u201d can have a very real effect on American politics.<\/p>\n

James Shanahan<\/a>, Dean of the Media School, Indiana University<\/a><\/em> and Michael Morgan<\/a>, Professor Emeritus of Communication, University of Massachusetts Amherst<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Shanahan, Indiana University and Michael Morgan, University of Massachusetts Amherst Many gallons of ink (and megabytes of electronic text) have been devoted to explaining the surprise victory of Donald Trump. Reasons range from white working-class resentment, to FBI Director James Comey\u2019s decision to reopen the Hillary Clinton email investigation, to low turnout. All likely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[479,308,2509,540,1728,536,2510],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9342,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9340\/revisions\/9342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}