2. Overview and Summary
■ The Study by faculty and students at the University of Haifa in Israel.
■ Sought to show the association of consumption of ideological news media and the
perception of public opinion.
■ Focused on the Israeli disengagement campaign and the 2004 US Presidential election
– 2005 Israel center-left proposed that Israel leave the Gaza strip, to decrease friction with
Palestine and to decrease international pressure on Israel to provide for the possibility of
Palestinian sovereignty.
– The 2004 election was polled as close election up through the final vote count.The
election rarely wavered from a four percent or less difference between the Bush and Kerry
3. Theory and Hypothesis
Theory
■ Spiral-of-Silence – people holding
views contrary to those dominant in
the media are moved to keep those
views to themselves for fear of
rejection.
Hypothesis
■ H1 – (a)Watching conservative news
is associated with perceiving public
opinion as being conservative, (b)
watching liberal news is associated
with perceiving public opinion as
being liberal
■ H2 – Differing perceptions of public
opinion is associated with a polarized
political environment
■ RQ1 – Can opinion perceptions
mediate the effect of likeminded
media on polarization?
4. Conclusion & Critique
Conclusion
■ Confirmation of both hypotheses.
– Israel example shows that viewing of
conservative news media was
associated with conservative
perceptions of public opinion
– US example confirms both
hypotheses, shows that viewing
either candidate as negative or
positive was related to the perception
of public opinion and consumption of
likeminded ideological media
Critique
■ A comparative study would have
been better, rather than two
different studies on two different
countries
■ Better explanation of the theory and
how it is relevant to the study
■ Better explanation of the data as it
relates to the research question
