Politician Seeking Voter: How Interviews on Entertainment Talk Shows Affect Trust in Politicians

Authors

  • Mark Boukes University of Amsterdam
  • Hajo G. Boomgaarden University of Amsterdam

Keywords:

talk show, effects, political trust, experiment, infotainment

Abstract

During election campaigns, politicians regularly feature on entertainment talk shows in which they are typically approached in uncritical and positive manners. To test how such appearances affect trust in politicians, we conducted an online experiment with a Dutch adult sample in which participants were randomly allocated to see an entertainment talk show interview, a current affairs program interview with the same politician, or a control condition without exposure. Findings demonstrate that exposure to the talk show interview affected participants’ trust in politicians. Moreover, this effect was strongly moderated by political knowledge. Trust in politicians was positively affected by talk show exposure among individuals with low political knowledge, but negatively for those with the most political knowledge.

Author Biographies

Mark Boukes, University of Amsterdam

Mark Boukes is a postdoctoral researcher at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the content and, especially, the effects of infotainment and economic news. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to dr. Mark Boukes, Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, Netherlands. E-mail: markboukes@gmail.com; Phone: +31 6 - 117 899 48.

Hajo G. Boomgaarden, University of Amsterdam

Hajo G. Boomgaarden is Professor for Empirical Social Science Methods with a Focus on Text Analysis at the Department of Methods in the Social Sciences at the University of Vienna

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Published

2016-02-13

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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