This research assesses whether conflict-laden news coverage affects public perceptions of political institutions and political elites in general. Particularly, is conflict-oriented television news coverage of politics contributing to negative evaluations of political institutions and their leaders? We present evidence from an experiment designed to address this question. Our experiment is constructed around media coverage of the State of the Union Address. We control for the source of news (CNN), and examine how CNN’s Crossfire and Inside Politics’ coverage and analyses of the State of the Union Address influenced the attitudes and perceptions of viewers. We find that conflict-laden television coverage decreases public evaluations of political institutions, trust in leadership, and overall support for political parties and the system as a whole. Our findings have implications for public opinion in an era of increased abundance of high-conflict cable news talk shows that turn the political process into a contact sport.

The purpose of this article was to describe a model of clinical/disaster psychology and illustrate how one psychologist applied training in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The primary focus of the article relates to training graduate students of clinical psychology and assisting evacuees, public education and dissemination, and research. Psychologists may find themselves in similar positions when disasters occur in the future, and the linkage of research and theory with anecdotal accounts may provide mental health professionals with ideas regarding avenues of training to pursue and the various roles that may be served in times of disaster. Recommendations are offered to training programs with regard to infusing tenets of clinical/disaster psychology into their curriculum.This article describes a variety of strategies that a psychologist may pursue to assist in the mental health response to natural disasters. It is primarily based on my perspective (SES) 1 as an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at The University of Mississippi who arrived at this position with specialized doctoral training in clinical/disaster psychology from The University of South Dakota's Disaster Mental Health Institute (DMHI). I hope that my experiences will inform training programs and mental health professionals about how clinical/ disaster training may be pursued and applied when a natural disaster occurs. Training in Clinical/Disaster PsychologyTraining programs and their directors should consider both formal and informal training opportunities for those interested in preparing to provide disaster assistance. Doctoral training in a formal program such as the Disaster Mental Health Institute (DMHI) at The University of South Dakota (http://usd.edu/dmhi/) is an important way to gain preparatory training. The DMHI offers a variety of training programs, including a doctoral Specialty Track in Clinical/Disaster Psychology, which is earned conjointly with the Clinical Training Program's Ph.D. degree. Students take disaster-related coursework, STEFAN E. SCHULENBERG received his doctorate in clinical psychology from The University of South Dakota, where he also specialized in clinical/disaster psychology through the University's Disaster Mental Health Institute. Dr. Schulenberg is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Mississippi. His research interests include clinical/disaster psychology, psychological assessment, test validation, and logotherapy. KIRSTEN A. DELLINGER received her doctorate in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin. She is an associate professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at The University of Mississippi. Her research interests include gender and sexuality in the workplace and qualitative methods. ANGELA J. KOESTLER received her doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi. She currently works in private practice at the Nordal Clinic in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Her clinical and research interests incl...

This study examines the modern-day television “news grazer” in American politics. We define news grazers as those individuals who watch television news with remote control in hand and switch to another channel when an uninteresting topic comes up. Using survey data from the Pew Research Center, we find that news grazers differ significantly from nongrazers in news-gathering habits, political knowledge, and behavior. These effects remain significant even when controlling for other factors associated with news-grazing frequency, such as age and gender. The implications for the present and future of democratic political engagement are discussed.

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We assess governmental and non-governmental responses to disasters using primary data of Hurricane Katrina survivors along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Non-governmental sources include nonprofit relief groups, faith-based organizations, and survivors' self-identified social networks. We assess the impact of these governmental and non-governmental relief efforts on survivors' economic, psychological, physical, and social effects from the disaster. Our results show that social isolation significantly increases perceptions of disaster disturbance and decreases perceived rates of disaster relief. Additionally, survivors perceive that social networks provide greater sources of psychological, financial and social disaster relief than government sources. However, survivors' social networks decay sharply in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, and they do not appear to fully recover a year from the disaster. These social networks themselves are not fully resilient to a disaster.