- Effect of Attitudes on Interpretation
- The attitude refers to the mental or the neutral state of or the readiness to respond to a certain thing. Attitude evaluation of a person also involves determining a particular person belief about something or a certain place. Dancy in the article “The Consequences of Political Cynicism: How Cynicism Shapes Citizens Reactions to Political Scandals” first present a strong argument that cynic toward the elected officials largely influence how different individuals interpret the information regarding various political scandals (Dancey, 2011). In relation to this he first present an argument that the people normally have belief that the leaders are working for their own interest and therefore engage into dishonest activities to benefit their personal interest.
- From the Dancy article it is evident that the cynicism towards different leaders reflects the kind of political trust people have towards their leaders. This political trust in turn potentially influences the attitude that people have towards the various government institution and its authorities. In addition, it is important to note people need to ensure that they separate the broader political trust on the elected official from the various governments elected positions. This type of separation can help to ensure that one is able to evaluate the political trust influence the behavior and the attitude.
- In his article Logan first cites the work by Blais et el (2005) where research was done on the Canadian citizen reaction to the 2004 sponsorship scandal (Dancey, 2011). In the research it was found that cynicism played an important role in the shaping the perception of the scandal. This therefore made many people to react harshly regarding the scandal. He also quotes a study carried out by the Holm et al (1974) where the people who had low political trusts showed great tendency to believe Nixon had lost much of the credibility in the Watergate scandal and hence it was hard for him to be the president(Dancey, 2011). This therefore implies that from the two studies that cynicism shapes how different individuals respond to the scandals
- Moreover, in his research Logan also explores some of the theories of expectations. In regard to this there exists theories of motivated reasoning which argue that the citizen tend to arrive to the conclusion that they want to. In order to support his point he points out that in the wake of political scandals supporter of the accused may avoid information or attach less importance to the scandal. He also indicates that the social psychology demonstrates that the beliefs about a certain group can affect the interpretation of information about the behavior of an individual. He therefore argues that cynicism and non-cynics differ in the extent to which they search information regarding various scandals since the cynics usually seek information to confirm their prior belief. The cynics also struggle to explore the possible ways of avoiding the information regarding a certain scandal.
- In order to investigate how the cynics interpret information regarding a certain scandal, he therefore present to case involving high profile politician. He first investigates the house bank scandal. The scandal started on September 1991 this was when the General Account officers reported that the different house members wrote overdraft from the internal house account. On April 1992 the accounting officer released the name of 269 members had been involved in writing of the bad checks. This wave of the scandal really affected the level of cynicism among the elected officials in the NES panel. In order to investigate the cynicism he investigated using question intended to enquire from the public what they thought on different people who were running the government. These questions were aimed at ensuring that they tap the various beliefs about the integrity of the people running the government. From this study he was able to establish that 49.5 percent respondents in 1990 were cynical (Dancey, 2011). This study was also meant to measure official’s competences and responsiveness.
- Dancey also uses the analysis of the Senate Watergate hearing, which took place between May 17 and august 7, 1973 in which the proceeding were broadcasted in various channels such the NBC,ABC among others. A total of 135 respondent participated in the survey which was broadcasted for 5 days (Dancey, 2011). This type of survey provided a perfect opportunity to compare the reaction of people in regard to the various scandals involving the president. In this type of survey the respondent were asked questions whether they agree on the statement that the most of the politicians usually never tell people what they really think. In addition the respondent was also asked whether they agree with the statement that the politician in American politics do not have to give up his personal integrity.
- From the analysis of the two scandals Dancey was able to establish that in the first scandal an overall of 86% indicated that they had never had about the scandal. Another important point to note is the fact it was evident the cynics were more likely to interpret the more negatively and easily believe that the bad check writers broke the law. It was also evident from the result of the study that in the situations where both the cynics and non-cynics knew about the scandal, the cynic in such situation were more likely to interpret that the behavior of bad checks writers as illegal.
- In the second case he mainly uses the question on the respondent regarding whether they thought whether the senate Watergate had produced enough evident that could allow the beginning of prosecution of the president impeachment proceeding of President Nixon. In this case the study indicates that the cynics were more likely to believe that the impeachment should have a begun immediately after the hearing (Dancey, 2011). Analyzing this case presented by Dancey it is evident that the both scandals indicate that the various impression of the politician integrity may have political consequences. However, from the study it also true that there is no evidence to prove that the cynics more likely to have or search information regarding a certain scandal than the non-cynics. This clearly indicates that the cynics have a strong negative feeling toward their politicians involved in scandals.
- Article2
- In the article “internet use and cynicism versus skepticism in young citizen attitudes towards political decision making” the authors also tries to analyze the whether cynicism has an effect on attitude ( Zhang, & Pinkleton, 2009). From their study they first noted that there had been in an increase in the number of the young people who were involved in participating in the electro process. In addition, they also noted that the tradition media such as newspapers also and television had played an important role in the citizen decision making. However, they also noted that over the past decade there had an increase in the usage of the internet. In relation to this they first noted that in 2004 the blogs had become the mainstream political strategy in the presidential elections. The US presidential race of 2008 was also characterized with the use of the internet. This is because senator Obama mainly embarked on the use of multiple social networking sites, online videos sites, blogs and mobile messaging (Zhang, & Pinkleton, 2009). The uses of these social networking sites helped Obama in his presidential race.
- From their preliminary studies Zhang and Pinkleton found out that the use of the internet had become the integral part of their lives. This is because according Pew (2002) approximately 92% of the college student had the access to the internet (Zhang, & Pinkleton, 2009). This therefore implies that this group is likely to experience the consequences from the internet use. From their literature review they were able to review the various study of the scholars on the effect of the internet. In relation to this were able to establish studies such as those carried by Norris (2001) that the internet can increase exponentially the citizen capacity to participate in various levels of the government (Zhang & Pinkleton, 2009). Another study they reviewed was the study carried out by Schleuda(1986) which suggested that the citizen involvement in various public affairs indicates that they have higher knowledge gain which also reflect on their attitude and related behaviors. This therefore implies that the citizens who are involved in the politics are more likely to seek political information from various media available.
- In order to establish the influence of the internet on the attitude toward politics Zhang and Pinkleton designed the study such that the students were to fill a web-based survey (Zhang & Pinkleton, 2009). In this survey they sought to first establish the amount of attention that individuals pay toward the information related to politics. The students were also asked to state whether they agree with the statement that the politician are out to touch the lives of the real world. Moreover, the students were also asked whether they agree the statement that the politicians usually put their interests ahead of the public interest. These statements were meant to establish the level of cynicism among the students. In addition, the students were asked to responds to the statement such whether they seek out addition information before to confirm the statement made by the politician. Such statements were meant to establish the level of political skepticism among the students.
- From their study Zhang and Pinkleton were able to establish that the attention to the internet use for political information turned out to be one of the strong predictor of the political involvement of the students. This therefore implies that the young people who pay attention to the internet are more likely to be involved in the politics. However, from their study they were also able to establish that the cynical citizens tend to distance themselves from the media and government. This is because they view the political information as irrelevant to their life and therefore may not be interested to seek any political information. It is also evident that the from the study that involvement in searching for political process can also help to contribute to motivational informational seeking.
- Article 3
- The article “Young people’s attitude towards British political advertising nurturing or impending voter engagement” cans also be used to investigate the role of attitude in decision-making (Dermody, & Scullion, 2005). From the introduction of the article the authors first note that it various politicians encounter a great difficult when communicating to the British electorate. This was mainly due to the increased levels of cynicisms towards the political systems and institutions. This challenge was more prominent during the 2001 British general elections where there was low voter turnout. During the campaigns the advertisements by the labor party were reminding people how things were improving and at the same time incorporating some sense of humor. The conservative in the same campaign attacked the labor party on the various policies they had implemented in the public service delivery. However, the conservative accepted the defeat in their last ad and therefore gave the labor party an opportunity to form the government. This therefore led to the labor party to officials to initiate advertisement aimed at promoting the awareness of the new leadership of Charles Kennedy.
- According to the marketing front cover of may 17, 2001, it was evident that the prior to the 2001 general elections both the young voters and women were most likely sections of the electorate to be influenced by the advertisement. In addition, various study in their literature review such as the study by O’Donohoe 1997 indicated that the young people had a favorable attitude towards the political advertisement than the old people do. In their study design they aimed at establishing the malaise and the cynicism among the young British adults (Dermody, & Scullion, 2005). This was in relation to the advertisement campaigns employed in the 2001 British general elections. In order to establish the level of cynicism among the voter they went as far as investigating the content of the advertising materials. In addition the study also aimed at establishing the young people attitude towards the style used in the advertisements. The survey used the young people between the ages 18-22. The participants in this study were supposed to respond to a number of questions presented to them. These questions in this study were generated from the literature review and previous research conducted. The respondent in the study were supposed to respond to the attitude related questions.
- From the study Dermody and Scullion, were able to establish that the 36% of the respondents in the interview indicated that the advertisement were mainly related to personalities rather than the policies (Dermody, & Scullion, 2005). The same study also indicated that the 38.4 % of the respondent considered the advertisement to be a mixture between the personalities and policies. In addition the study also indicated that the 7.9% of the respondent thought that the study was mainly about policies (Dermody, & Scullion, 2005). However careful analysis of the advertisement it is evident that they had more to do with policies rather than personalities. This clearly indicates that people perceived “personalization” of the politics had an influence in the interpretation of the information.
- Conclusion
- Analysis of the three articles it is evident that the attitude plays a critical role during the interpretation of information. In the first article on the “The Consequences of Political Cynicism: How Cynicism Shapes Citizens Reactions to Political Scandals” (Zhang, & Pinkleton, 2009), It is evident that the cynics have a strong negative view towards the politicians involved in scandal. Due to this negative attitude the cynics are more likely to ignore the information related to a certain scandal, therefore only making their own information. From the article “internet use and cynicism versus skepticism in young citizen attitudes towards political decision making” (Zhang, & Pinkleton, 2009) it is also evident that the involvement in the search for various political information can contribute in motivational involvement in the political process. Moreover, from the article “Young people’s attitude towards British political advertising nurturing or impending voter engagement” (Dermody, & Scullion, 2005) it is also worth noting that the perceived personalization affects the individual personal attitude toward politics. This effect of the attitude in turn affects the interpretation of information.
- References
- Dermody, J., & Scullion, R. (2005). Young People's Attitudes Towards British Political Advertising: Nurturing or Impeding Voter Engagement?. Journal Of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 14(1/2), 129-148
- Logan Dancey (2011) The Consequences of Political Cynicism: How Cynicism
- Shapes Citizens’ Reactions to Political Scandals Polit Behav Springer Science+Business Media 34:411–423.
- Zhang, L., & Pinkleton, B. (2009). Internet Use, Cynicism, and Skepticism in Young Citizens' Attitudes Towards Political Decision Making. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-29.
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