Tim Vercellotti, assistant professor of political science and director of the Elon University Poll, presented a paper on the influence of television news coverage on support for the war in Iraq at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association in New Orleans, Jan. 8-10.
The paper, titled “Attracting hawks or creating them? The role of television news in building support for the war in Iraq,” involved statistical analyses of survey data from the Elon University Poll. The data came from statewide surveys of adult North Carolinians conducted in November 2002, as the nation prepared for war, and in late April-early May 2003, shortly before President Bush declared an end to major combat.
The analyses showed that as the frequency of viewing television news increased, so too did support for using military force in Iraq. This occurred even when controlling for other factors, such as education, gender, race, use of print media and radio news, and political partisanship. Television news exposure played a similar role in building support for using military force against Iran and Syria. The effects of television news were strongest for survey respondents who exhibited low levels of political sophistication, suggesting that their views were more loosely held and easier to influence through exposure to television news.