Auntie knows best? public broadcasters and current affairs knowledge

Soroka, S; Andrews, B; Toril, A; Shanto, I; Curran, J; Coen, S; Hayashi, K; Jones, P

Abstract

Public service broadcasters (PSBs) are a central part of national news media landscapes. In many countries, PSBs are the first choice of citizens when it comes to news providers. And in perhaps more countries still, PSBs are thought of as specialists in provision of hard news. We test this proposition here using survey data from a large crossnational survey involving indicators of current affairs knowledge and media consumption. Specifically, we examine whether exposure to public versus commercial news influences the knowledge citizens possess about current affairs, both domestically and internationally. We
also test, using propensity score analysis, whether there is variation across PSBs in this regard. Results indicate that compared to commercial news, watching PSB has a net
positive influence on knowledge of hard news, though not all PSBs are equally effective in contributing to knowledge acquisition. This knowledge gap between PSB and commercial
news media consumption appears to be mitigated by factors such as de jure independence,proportion of public financing, and audience share.

Citation

Soroka, S., Andrews, B., Toril, A., Shanto, I., Curran, J., Coen, S., …Jones, P. (2013). Auntie knows best? public broadcasters and current affairs knowledge. British Journal of Political Science, 43(4), 719-739. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123412000555

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 6, 2013
• Deposit Date: Nov 14, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: British Journal of Political Science
• Print ISSN: 0007-1234
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 719-739
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123412000555
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007123412000555
• Related Public URLs: http://www.snsoroka.com/files/AuntieKnowsBest_complete.pdf