News, political knowledge and participation
1
“It’s the content!”
How content moderates the effects of news on political knowledge and participation
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between media and political knowledge and
participation. Drawing on panel surveys and media content analyses the study provides a
compelling link between exposure and attention to specific media contents and
knowledge and participation. Our findings challenge conventional wisdom since we find
the strongest learning and participation effects from exposure and attention to television
news rather than newspapers. However, these effects are contingent upon the content of
the news, so that only exposure to news programs that reported elaborately about politics
had positive effects. The results are discussed in the light of research on media effects
and political participation.