Von Ralf Keuper

In seiner aktuellen Ausgabe berichtet Katapult – Magazin für Kartografik und Sozialwissenschaft in dem Beitrag Seichtes Unterhaltungsfernsehen fördert Populismus von der Studie The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV, die am Beispiel Italiens den Zusammenhang zwischen seichtem Unterhaltungsfernsehen und Populismus beleuchtet.

Abstract der Studie:

We study the political impact of entertainment television in Italy exploiting the staggered introduction of Berlusconi’s commercial TV network, Mediaset, in the early 1980s. We find that individuals with early access to Mediaset all-entertainment content were more likely to vote for Berlusconi’s party in 1994, when he first ran for office. The effect persists for five elections and is driven by heavy TV viewers, namely the very young and the elders. Regarding possible mechanisms, we find that individuals exposed to entertainment TV as children were less cognitively sophisticated and civic-minded as adults, and ultimately more vulnerable to Berlusconi’s populist rhetoric.

Als Ergebnis halten die Autoren fest:

Our findings offer the first systematic evidence that exposure to entertainment television influences voting behavior, and suggests that this effect is mediated by deeper cognitive and cultural transformations. Though specific to the Italian case, our analysis provides more general insights into how the cultural codes popularized by entertainment media can influence political preferences.

Von McLuhan

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