Using Political Journalists’ Definitions of Public Opinion to Predict Source Use in Political News |
| |
| Authors: | Jennifer Hoewe |
| |
| Institution: | Department of Journalism, University of Alabama |
| |
| Abstract: | This study examined political journalists’ definitions of public opinion and how these definitions influence the structure of political news stories. After considering prior conceptualizations of public opinion, a scale of two distinct definitions of public opinion was created, consisting of the optimist’s and the pessimist’s definitions. Using a survey of political journalists in the United States, these public opinion definitions were significant predictors of the use of particular sources in political news stories. Importantly, the two definitions had opposite influences on the use of opinion polls, shedding light on the discrepancy in use and perception of poll results in political news. |
| |
| Keywords: | Journalists News Media Opinion Polls Public Opinion Source Use |
|
|
