Television and the Cultivation of Authoritarianism: A Return Visit From an Unexpected Friend

Abstract

The 2016 Presidential election brought a surprise: the rise of Donald Trump as a viable candidate for the Republican nomination. What started as a seeming publicity stunt morphed into something more. Trump raised fears of authoritarianism-and even fascism-that were thought to be mostly confined to other countries. This study uses a national sample to examine television viewing's relationship to authoritarian values. We find that heavy viewers of television are more likely to be authoritarian, and that authoritarians are more likely to support Trump. We find an indirect relationship between amount of viewing and Trump support through authoritarianism. These findings have implications for current political debates as well as for media effects theory.Authoritarianism has been a much-studied (and much contested) construct since the 1950s. Gaining impetus and momentum from the events of World War II and the rise of worldwide Fascist movements, it has been adduced as a "root cause" of attitudes such as ethnocentrism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism. The idea is that the authoritarian "personality" is one who is subservient to power above him or her, and abusive of power to those below. Authoritarians favor conformity; liberal attitudes that support and celebrate freedom of speech or social diversity are abhorrent to authoritarians' sense of things. They also prize law and order, and believe force and power are often necessary to create it. Strong leaders are seen as more desirable than those who work toward consensus or compromise through democratic

Is Trump always rambling like a fourth-grade student? An analysis of stylistic features of Donald Trump’s political discourse during the 2016 election

“…Certainly, we cannot hereof make a final conclusion that Trump is more like a totalitarian leader, though his TC is indeed higher than those of his opponent and predecessor in campaign speeches (this can also be further examined by including more candidates in the former elections). Nonetheless, it might not be a coincidence that Trump’s supporters have already been depicted more as authoritarian supporters (Choma and Hanoch, 2017; MacWilliams, 2016; Morgan and Shanahan, 2017). One of the important characterizations of an authoritarian society is the deference to authority (Pettigrew, 2017), which is similar to the totalitarianism mentioned in Čech (2014) to some extent.…”

US prisms and prejudice through mediating the Middle East

“…Islam is projected as a monolithic source of violence, inspiring credible threats to U.S. citizens (Afshar, 2013; Ahmed and Matthes, 2017; Al-Zo’by, 2015; Amin-Khan, 2012; Ekman, 2015; Ibrahim, 2010; Kumar, 2014; Morey and Yaqin, 2010; Schmuck et al., 2017). Beyond these limited and limiting characterizations, narratives of Middle Eastern terror work to justify discriminatory practices against Arab and Muslim communities as well as military intervention in the Middle East (Altheide, 2013; Downing, 2007; El-Nawawy and Elmasry, 2017; Evans, 2010; Hatton and Nielsen, 2016; Morgan and Shanahan, 2017). Given this extensive documentation of problematic stereotypes and narratives, it is important that we explore their consequences to attitudes and experiences.…”

Larger Than Life: Injecting Hope into the Planetary Health Paradigm

“…For example, preliminary evidence suggests that nature relatedness and orientation toward political authoritarianism run in opposite directions [175]; on the other hand, time spent indoors consuming screen-based media may shape attitudes. For example, greater time spent watching television is positively associated with authoritarianism [176]. The importance of further investigating the relationships between nature relatedness, public health, politics and policy (from the planetary health perspective) is discussed in more detail below.…”