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- Title
The Inferential Structure of Political Communications: A Study in Unwitting Bias.
- Authors
Lang, Gladys Engel; Lang, Kurt
- Abstract
The article presents a study of the inferential structure of political communications. Telecasters often assume an automatic reportorial accuracy when significant content is given full coverage. To test this hypothesis, the authors monitored and studied the differential structuring by three television networks of the same public event, the 1952 Democratic Convention and found unwitting bias characterized the reporting. It is contended that the differential interpretations given to the episodes by three groups of viewers reflect and were determined by an unwitting bias on the part of the telecasters which, in turn, can be attributed, in part, to differences in the telecasters' judgments of their audience. The finding that monitoring groups tended to take over as their own the interpretations most stressed on their channel has an immediate bearing on any evaluation of the role of television in the formation of political opinion. The alleged neutrality of video is refuted, despite the showing of systematic content analysis that essentially had the same range of meanings and the same factual information were available on each of the networks.
- Subjects
POLITICAL communication; PREJUDICES; REPORTERS &; reporting; CONFERENCES &; conventions; TELEVISION broadcasting; COMPARATIVE studies
- Publication
Public Opinion Quarterly, 1955, Vol 19, Issue 2, p168
- ISSN
0033-362X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1086/266559