The Cultural (Even More Than Political) Legacy of Entertainment TV

Lorenzo De Sio and Davide Angelucci have recently published a research paper titled “The Cultural (Even More Than Political) Legacy of Entertainment TV,” in which they investigate the long-term effects of early exposure to entertainment television (particularly Mediaset) on citizens’ values. This topic is especially relevant for POSTGEN, as it suggests the importance of non-political content for shaping values of citizens, with an indirect but relevant effect also on political attitudes.

Below the translation of a short interview by Matteo Boldrini to the two authors, published on the CISE website.

The effects of television on opinions, particularly political opinions, and hence on voting, was a much-discussed topic in the 1990s, following Berlusconi’s entry into politics. However, today we can say that it doesn’t seem to be a very current topic. Where did the idea for the article come from?

Lorenzo De Sio: Well, actually, that’s true… the idea came to us a few years ago after reading a study on the subject by some researchers from Bocconi University [Durante, Pinotti, and Tesei, ed.]. They had collected very interesting data on the strength of Mediaset (formerly Fininvest) antennas in the early 1980s and combined them with data on mountain reliefs throughout Italy. Thus, they reconstructed which Italian municipalities could already receive Berlusconi’s networks (initially only Canale 5) starting from 1979 and which ones received them only years later. By linking these data with survey data collected several years later, they tested whether there were differences in people’s opinions in cities that had received Mediaset for more years compared to others. They discovered that indeed there was a slight but noticeable tendency to have more “populist” opinions, to vote for Forza Italia, or even to vote for the Five Star Movement in 2013, thirty years later….

I remember this study from years ago. It was quite controversial and sparked a debate in which even journalist Enrico Mentana [currently anchor of an important evening news programme, and a former Mediaset anchor] took a critical stance…

Indeed. The data was actually solid (although with not very strong effects), but the controversy arose because the authors argued that one of the effects of Mediaset was the lowering of cognitive levels due to low-quality programming, which would predispose people toward populist attitudes. This sparked a heated debate. We started from this point because the data was interesting and the results were solid, but there was something that didn’t convince us about the explanatory mechanism.

What exactly did you disagree with regarding the explanation offered by the Bocconi researchers?

Davide Angelucci: In our opinion, the real cause was not the lowering of cognitive levels. From many electoral studies, we know clearly that Forza Italia, over the decades, was able to mobilize voters around specific issues, such as specific economic preferences (e.g., protecting self-employed workers and businesses), even across different social classes and not only among the less educated or politically disengaged individuals. So, in our view, the mechanism behind the media exposure effect of Mediaset had to be somewhat different. Also: in that period, the early 1980s, Mediaset, among other things, presented exclusively entertainment content. The point, is that these programs promoted specific lifestyles and values that were very different from those promoted by the Rai public television, which even in entertainment had a quite pedagogical approach linked to traditional and solidaristic values.

LDS (interrupting): … I was a kid in those years, and I remember them well: series like Dallas [which initially started with a few episodes on Rai but was quickly canceled and moved to Mediaset, where it was successfully broadcasted for many years, ed.] and Dynasty, with individualistic, luxurious, and morally uninhibited lifestyles… programs like OK il prezzo è giusto (adapted from the American The Price Is Right), which celebrated consumerism; comedy shows with prosperous pin-up girls, like Drive In… all things that one would never see on Rai, to the extent that one of the most famous programs on Mediaset (although a few years later) would be called Non è la Rai [“This is not Rai”]…

DA: Here’s the idea: entertainment programs also convey lifestyles and, therefore, values. Thus, exposure to these programs can have an impact on citizens and their values. From this perspective, we have built our argument based on a solid scientific literature showing how individuals differ in a variety of values that also influence politics and voting choices. In this sense, our idea revolves around the fact that the impact of increased exposure to Mediaset is not linked to a decline in citizens’ cognitive abilities but rather to its ability to influence the reference values of many of these citizens.

Right, but… how can you measure the different values that people believe in?

LDS: The real challenge lies in this aspect. However, there has been extensive research, especially in psychology, on this matter. Research on people’s values has developed measurement scales that are administered in numerous surveys. A particularly fascinating contribution comes from Israeli psychologist Shalom Schwartz, who in the 1990s proposed a series of questions to assess individuals’ orientations towards ten different core values. For example, these values include the importance of hedonism, power achievement, success, conformity, benevolence towards others, and so on. We specifically recalled that these questions were included in a survey conducted by the ITANES research group [which also involved CISE scholars] on a sample of Italians in 2006. At that point, we linked the ITANES data on citizens’ values with the data on Mediaset accessibility (by municipality) in the early 1980s, collected by researchers from Bocconi University. We then identified which respondents lived in cities and towns that had received Mediaset broadcasts for five or six more years in the early 1980s, to find out if, twenty years later, their opinions were actually somewhat different from those of others. Essentially, we replicated the analysis conducted by our colleagues, but specifically examining the impact on values. With the underlying idea that even if those respondents themselves may not have personally watched Mediaset networks (perhaps because they were too young), their families, neighbors, schoolmates, or coworkers did, thus effectively influencing the value orientations of entire communities.

And so, what were the results?

DA: The results are extremely interesting. We found that exposure to Mediaset, particularly long-term exposure, had a significantly broader and statistically stronger impact on respondents’ values compared to what our colleagues found regarding populism. Respondents living in cities with more long-term Mediaset accessibility show more individualistic and conservative tendencies than others. This seems to support our thesis that the cultural legacy of entertainment television appears to be stronger than its political implications and likely predates them. This doesn’t mean that this phenomenon lacks political implications, but it also has broader implications for cultural transformations and values. It’s worth noting that during the crucial period for our analysis, when Mediaset was only available in certain cities (the early 1980s), it focused exclusively on entertainment programming without any political or news content. This leads us to reflect on the importance, in a democratic system, of ensuring a plurality of worldviews, even in non-directly political content.

But today people (especially the younger), don’t use TV as much. Does your research still have relevant implications?

LDS: This is an important point. In fact, we know: 1) that TV remains highly relevant for various segments of the population, but more importantly, 2) that TV content is now distributed in many different ways, such as through streaming, including on mobile devices, and that’s why they continue to be very popular and significant. For example, a highly popular series among young people in Italy, named “Mare Fuori,” paradoxically achieved more success through streaming than on terrestrial TV. Additionally, a lot of TV content circulates widely through social media, highlighting the continued importance of TV. But above all, the significance of non-political programs in influencing values must be emphasized. Since we found significant effects even after a twenty-year span, the question is: what values are being conveyed by all the media content we are immersed in? And what impact do they have on our values? Even for comedy shows like “LOL” and for series available on Netflix: what impact do they have on our values?
Furthermore, this is of even broader relevance. Within the POSTGEN project we are starting to study the potential impact of influencers on social media on politics (including non-political influencers such as Chiara Ferragni). More broadly, this should make us reflect on the issue of pluralism, which involves the representation of different values, even in entertainment programs and on social media. Therefore, a research agenda for the future is to examine the types of values associated with the most widespread content, to understand if we are being strongly influenced in a certain direction, of which we may not yet be aware.

POSTGEN hiring! One post-doctoral position open at the University of Milan

A call is open from February 6, 2023 to March 7, 2023 (23:59 CET) for one fifteen-month post-doctoral positions at the POSTGEN unit at the University of Milan (see the POSTGEN project description and the people involved in the project):

Profile description:

The selected postdoctoral researcher will be in charge for specific task related to the project workpackage dedicated to the administration of a survey, in terms both of data collection and quantitative analysis.

The ideal candidates has:

◾ a background in empirical social research with quantitative approach;

◾ interest and/or experience in quantitative social research, with particular attention to the capacity to collect and analyze survey data related to values, attitudes and behaviors;

◾ previous experience in analyzing quantitative data in one or more of the topics covered by the researched (youth and voting behavior, public opinion, values and attitudes, political generations, political socialization, etc.);

◾ some record of scientific publications;

◾ English and Italian language skills;

The selected researcher will actively cooperate with the project team, and will be offered the possibility of a fully-fledged research experience within the POSTGEN project, including full participation to research activities and to the dissemination of the project, ranging from participation to international conferences to significant opportunities for scientific publications on international journals.

POSTGEN hiring! One post-doctoral position open at the University of Milan

A call is open from December 22, 2022 to February 6, 2023 (23:59 CET) for one twenty-month post-doctoral positions at the POSTGEN unit at the University of Milan (see the POSTGEN project description and the people involved in the project):

Profile description:

The selected postdoctoral researcher will be in charge for specific task related to the “School” project workpackage dedicated to the administration of a questionnaire high school students, to its analysis and to dissemination of the results to schools that participated at the study

The ideal candidates has:

◾ a background in empirical social research with quantitative and qualitative approach;

◾ interest and/or experience in educational research/youth studies;

◾ previous experience in analyzing quantitative and/or qualitative data in one or more of the topics covered by the researched (youth and voting behavior, values and attitudes, political generations, political socialization, etc.);

◾ participation to projects with mixed method research design;

◾ some record of scientific publications;

◾ English and Italian language skills;

The selected researcher will actively cooperate with the project team, and will be offered the possibility of a fully-fledged research experience within the POSTGEN project, including full participation to research activities and to the dissemination of the project, ranging from participation to international conferences to significant opportunities for scientific publications on international journals.

New Challenges for Representative Democracy: The Changing Political Space in Western Europe

Nicola Maggini, member of the POSTGEN research team, recently published an article analyzing the ideological consistency of voters in various European countries, exploring, among other variables, differences between generations.

A short interview with the author on the main findings of the research follows below.

The article is open access and can be accessed here.

Nicola Maggini, your article explores if voters’ preferences on economic and cultural issues can still be interpreted by a one overarching ideological dimension (namely the left-right one).  The paper found that it is no longer possible to interpret voters’ stances according to the traditional alignment. Can you further elaborate on this?

In the past we knew that the European political space was divided between progressives and conservatives, which encompassed different position on economic and cultural issues. However, this space became progressively more two-dimensional, with the cultural dimension gaining more and more autonomy from the economic one. This process could presuppose a greater ideological inconsistency of voters. In the research I examine voters’ preferences on economic, cultural and related to the so-called transnational dimension (e.g., stance on EU, on immigration) issues in general elections from 7 Western European countries. The aim was to investigate if there are differences in ideological consistency among voters of different parties and between younger and older generations. The results show that, especially with reference to the economic dimension, there is a strong inconsistency of voter’s preferences.

In the article “ideological inconsistency of issue preferences” is mentioned, can you explain more in the details this concept?

Ideological consistency can be interpreted in three different ways. Between party positions and voter positions, as the internal consistency within each dimension and as consistency among dimensions, which implies they can be synthesized by an overarching dimension, traditionally the left-right opposition. The analysis shows that the overarching progressive-conservative dimension is no longer a dimension significantly structuring issue preferences among citizens, with voters mixing traditionally left and right goals. In addition, it was found that young people and voters of anti-establishment, challenger and radical right-wing parties are more inconsistent, whereas left-wing voters are more consistent. Thus, there is both a generational and a political distinction.

Your findings show the loss of structuring ability of traditional cultural and economic dimension and the rise of a new transnational dimension linked to the attitude towards immigration and the EU. Rather than of a de-structuration of the political space, should we speak about a re-structuration around this new dimension?

Yes, we can talk about a restructuration of the political space. Although it is an aspect not investigated in the paper, these issues are considered salient by voters of both right-wing and left-wing parties. These issues have their own dimensionality and there is a strong consistency. Even radical right-wing party voters, who, as I said are the most inconsistent ones, are the most consistent on this dimension. So yes, it is possible that, in the future, there will be a restructuration in this direction.

So, is it possible to say that the traditional left-right cleavage lost its relevance in Western European political space?

The research highlights how the traditional left-right distinction in economic terms seem to have lost its ability to structure policy space. Obviously, we are talking about positions on issues, not about values, and, also, there could be inconsistency between values and policies produced. Certainly, it emerges how voters tend to take ideologically inconsistent positions on economic issues. However, this does not mean that from a symbolic or political point of view the labels left and right no longer have any meaning. I explored positioning on issues, a different matter is the relevance of these labels, which, as we know, are important in orienting voting choices, although their content may vary from the past.

Moreover, your research shows that ideological consistency differs in relation both to party preferences and to age group. In reference to political identification, is it correct to affirm that voters of new challenger and/or radical right parties are less ideologically driven than voters of traditional mainstream parties?

Yes, voters of radical right or challenger parties are less consistent than others, especially on economic issues and on cultural issues related to lifestyle and personal freedoms, confirming initial expectations. This is probably due to the strategies of the leadership of these parties, which realized that they could expand their constituency by taking inconsistent but salient in the electorate positions. However, it should be specified that the real distinction is not between mainstream and challenger parties but between right-wing and left-wing parties. Right-wing voters of both mainstream and challenger parties exhibit strong ideological inconsistency, compared to the voters of left-wing parties.

About differences among generations, can we say that younger generations are less ideologized than older ones?

In line with our expectations young generations are more ideologically inconsistent. There are exceptions, such as in the Netherlands and in Italy, where young people do not exhibit higher levels of inconsistency. And in any case differences are not huge, so we cannot speak of a real deconstruction. This is good, because a complete deconstruction of political space cannot be regarded positively. But yes, in general, younger generations are more inconsistent.

From which factors can the less ideological consistency of the younger groups be driven?  Can we speculate on the effects of new social media on this phenomenon?

In the research, I have not explored what this lower ideological consistency of the younger generation may be due to. However, we can speculate on the influence of different factors. It is known that young people live at a stage when they are socializing to politics. They are more open to novelty, less structured in their opinions and more fluid in their voting choices. This is the so-called “life cycle” effect. Then there is a “generation” effect.  It is important to look at the historical phase in which people’s political socialization takes place. It is clear that those generations socialized to politics in the 70s, at a time of great ideological conflicts, are more ideologized than those who became socialized during a period of strong detachment from politics. Moreover, there are factors like the disintermediation of politics and the importance of social media in influencing political orientations. It will be important to understand the influence of these new actors, starting precisely with the role of the influencers.

An ICCP public opinion survey marks the beginning of POSTGEN survey data collection

Concurrently with Italy’s early general elections (held on September 25, 2022), the POSTGEN project conducted its first survey data collection effort. This was a pre-election survey, carried out following the guidelines of surveys previously administered within the ICCP (Issue Competition Comparative Project), a project that in the past few years studied party “issue” competition in Western Europe, surveying citizens’ opinions on a wide range of political issues.

Here is a conversation with Lorenzo De Sio and Davide Angelucci, both members of POSTGEN and ICCP, on the importance and the implications for POSTGEN of this first survey data collection.

Lorenzo De Sio, what was this data collection about, and how was it conducted?

Lorenzo De Sio: The POSTGEN project, started officially on June 1. While we already started social media data collection, the first survey data collection effort was constituted by a pre-electoral survey conducted in the first weeks of September, at the occasion of early elections held in Italy. It was a panel survey, with data collection organized in two waves, one a month before the election and one immediately after the election. In a way, it also provides a continuation of the ICCP, a project that in the past years studied party competition in various European countries, surveying citizens’ opinions and party credibility perceptions on many political issues (approx. thirty!). Why was it useful for POSTGEN and why the project opens with a data collection based on the scheme in ICCP? Basically, because one of the key ideas of POSTGEN is to investigate citizens’ opinions on many central issues, and to assess whether these opinions are organized according to some consistent ideological scheme, or rather idiosyncratic, e.g. combine traditionally left-wing with traditionally right-wing stances. By the way, the ICCP framework also covers party communication on Twitter, to observe if parties also have ideological consistency, and as a result it provided a guide for designing POSTGEN itself.

Davide Angelucci, what are the main findings of the survey?

Davide Angelucci: The research reveals some new elements compared to previous ICCP analyses. A first relevant point is related to what as been called an “induced polarisation”. When only considering their opinions, voters of different parties tend to mix left-wing with right-wing parties, without particular constituency polarization. However, when we incorporate party credibility perceptions, voters identify their parties as clearly and consistently characterized as either left-wing or right-wing. For Italy, this is new compared to 2018, where most parties were indeed mixed and post-ideological. In addition, we record a dominant importance of cultural, non-economic issues in characterizing most parties and their polarization.

What are the main differences among parties?

LDS: The most interesting aspect that emerges is the prevalence of cultural issues for all parties, except the M5S. For example, Fratelli d’Italia is almost exclusively characterized by cultural issues. Their only economic issue is the abolition of the basic income, but it is a core issue for this party, which comes more from the polarization of public debate. The same happens for other parties. Azione – Italia Viva and the Partito Democratico are also mainly characterized by cultural issues. Azione – Italia Viva even with a right-wing positioning in reference to some goals. Forza Italia and the League are a bit different. They are characterized by a slightly higher number of economic issues, especially the League, sometimes (such as in reducing the retirement age) with a left-wing perspective. But the only real exception is the Five Star Movement, which is mostly characterized by economic issues, where it has a left-wing constituency, and a credibility on left-wing economic issue goals.

It could be argued that, except for the M5S, cultural issues were central for the 2022 Italian party competition?

DA: Yes, of course. However, it is necessary, to point out, although we have not tested it in reference to 2022 but have done so previously, the possible existence of a paradox. Behind some cultural issues, there could be elements related to the economic dimension. It is well known that there is a second dimension of competition, the cultural dimension, which is different from and in some cases independent of or even orthogonal to the economic dimension. We imagined that behind the prevalence of cultural issues, there may be an effect of an economic variabile (such as economic distress) that could make these issues relevant. For example, immigration becomes especially relevant to those socioeconomic groups that suffer most from an economic point of view. This is a hypothesis that has already been confirmed by some research, but we are still working on it, to see if we find further confirmation in empirical data.

And, finally, what are the implications of these survey results for the POSTGEN project?

LDS: The results are giving us an awareness that we may be observing something somewhat different compared to our initial expectations. Our general expectations, in line with the results of the ICCP project, implied the existence of original, post-ideological combinations of economic and cultural positions. Now, the first impression with these data is that, especially in reference to younger generations, we might be facing instead differences in issue salience, which could possibily hide the existence of profoundly post-ideological stances. Let’s take the example of Fratelli d’Italia. FDI attracts a constituency that requires protection on economic issues (so, has left-wing positions) but at the same time rewards a party perceived as right-wing predominantly on cultural issues. This means that economic issues have a substantially low salience, compared to cultural ones. They are not considered relevant. Furthermore, from the distribution of public opinion preferences, we have seen in some research that most voters support social protection measures but are against basic income. So, there is a general orientation towards redistribution, but then the vote is oriented by other factors of polarized party competition. In conclusion, “left” and “right” may still be alive and well, but when asking younger people about their meanings, they might tell us that these categories are perhaps almost exclusively related to non-economic issues, thus with a redefinition of their meanings, based solely on cultural issues. This is an important research question that animates our approach towards to the central part of the POSTGEN project.

POSTGEN hiring! Two post-doctoral positions open at Luiss Rome

A call is open from Apr 29, 2022 to May 30, 2022 (14:00 CEST) for two three-year post-doctoral positions at the POSTGEN Luiss unit (see the POSTGEN project description and the people involved in the project):

  1. Profile description for CALL #67 – Theory and management

The selected postdoctoral researcher will be in charge for specific tasks related to the project work package dedicated to the elaboration of the theoretical framework, as well as for tasks related to overall project management (project scheduling, coordination across project units and WPs, organization of events, etc.).

The ideal candidate has:

  • a background in empirical social research with a quantitative approach;
  • at least some familiarity with classic and recent literature in the fields of: political attitudes and behavior; party competition; the effects of (mainstream and social) media on political attitudes and behavior; generational dynamics;
  • at least some familiarity with quantitative analysis of social science data at various levels (individuals, parties, media);
  • at least some familiarity with common data analysis software/programming languages (Stata, R);
  • some record of scientific publications;
  • some previous participation to international research projects.
  • teamwork experience;
  • some experience in the organization of events;
  • some experience in organizational activities related to a research group.

The selected researcher will actively cooperate with the project team, and will be offered the possibility of a fully-fledged research experience within the POSTGEN project, including full participation to research activities and to the dissemination of the project, ranging from participation to international conferences to significant opportunities for scientific publications on international journals.

2. Profile description for CALL #66 – Social Media

The selected postdoctoral researcher will be in charge for specific tasks related to the project work package dedicated to social media, in terms of both data collection and quantitative analysis.

The ideal candidate has:

  • a background in empirical social research with a quantitative approach;
  • familiarity with manual and automated collection of social media data (including access to social media APIs);
  • familiarity with quantitative analysis of social media data, both with human coding and with algorithmic (supervised and unsupervised) approaches;
  • familiarity with common data analysis software/programming languages (Stata, R, Python);
  • some record of scientific publications;
  • some previous participation to international research projects.

The selected researcher will actively cooperate with the project team, and will be offered the possibility of a fully-fledged research experience within the POSTGEN project, including full participation to research activities and to the dissemination of the project, ranging from participation to international conferences to significant opportunities for scientific publications on international journals.

APPLY NOW!

CALL #67 – Theory and management

CALL #66 – Social Media