The medium matters: political communication and behavior in Latin America

Political communication scholars have long been interested in why people seek out the media content they do. Media choice is a complex decision influenced by a multitude of factors; and linking media consumption and behavior is difficult in regions without detailed information about individual media diets and consumption patterns. Yet those same areas are where scholars know the least about the link between media and political engagement. This dissertation endeavors to fill that void in research, using a method more efficient than traditional content analysis. With a focus on Latin America, my study is one of the few large-N comparative studies of media and politics within comparative politics. I posit that the public uses media reputation, the accumulation of years of interactions between the press and government, as a cue about the independence of any medium. I contend that media reputation, earned over time, acts as a signal about how close a media entity is to government, thereby guiding consumers interested in news outside the mainstream toward media that promote ideas that challenge the status quo. I expect that consumers of media that criticize the status quo will be more likely to engage in activities to change the status quo. To show this, I draw on the work of others across a variety of disciplines—including history, communications, anthropology, economics, sociology, media studies, journalism studies, area studies and ethnography—to categorize how media in different countries are both similar and different in reputation or relationship with government. I present a detailed classification scheme for institutional status quo bias that acts as a work-around for some of the language and scope problems associated with content analysis, which is most commonly used to link media consumption and political behavior. I then look for associations between consumption of different media and political behavior. Using data from the World Values Survey, AmericasBarometer and original data collected for this dissertation, I show that more frequent consumption of media with less status quo bias is associated with increased political participation. This is especially true for consumption of Internet news in Latin America.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Cronkhite, Amanda Beth

Contributors dc:contributor

• Althaus, Scott
• Canache, Damarys
• Leff, Carol
• Winters, Matthew

• Political science, Political communication, Political behavior, Latin America, News, Media, Protest

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2018 Amanda Beth Cronkhite

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101676

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/101676