Dealing with feelings: the role of emotions in political communication
Communication scientist Andreas Schuck recently received a Veni grant for his research into the mobilising/demobilising role of emotions in political news reporting.
It is often assumed that political reporting by definition is objective. Yet nothing is further from the truth, according to communication scientist Andreas Schuck. Schuck recently received a Veni grant for his research into the mobilising/demobilising role of emotions in political news reporting.
As far as Schuck is concerned, there is no question that feelings play a role in political coverage. ‘The Arab spring, the euro – you name it – the coverage is steeped in emotion. What I want to study now is the action and reaction triggered by these emotions – how do they affect people?’
German elections
To find out, Schuck will be analysing media content (print, TV and online) on important political issues such as immigration, the economy and national security in the four weeks prior to the 2013 German elections. He will examine the type of language used in the reporting and will link it to emotions. For example, a ‘promising economic agreement’ is classified under the heading ‘hopeful/positive’, while ‘worrying number of immigrants’ is placed under ‘fear’.
Changing opinions
In the next stage of his research, the communication scientist will conduct a number of extensive surveys among ‘users’ of the above media material in which he will, among other things, endeavour to gauge the opinions of respondents regarding certain issues, find out how these opinions change or have changed over time and to determine what form of mobilisation or demobilisation this leads to. ‘One example is voting behaviour. If people tell you they intend to vote, you can check afterwards whether they did indeed go to the polling station and whether they voted for the party they said they would. But mobilisation can also include broader political involvement, such as engaging in discussions with others but also actively seeking more information.
Experiment
The third stage of the research involves an experiment in which Schuck will endeavour to ascertain how people are affected by the various types of political reporting. ‘Obviously an experiment never exactly matches the circumstances in the real world, but it is an ideal way to determine how the manipulation mechanism works in an isolated environment, and whether certain character traits play on the suggestibility of people. We will also endeavour to measure the power of certain types of emotions in media coverage (anger, fear or literally hope).’
Author: Esther van Bochove, FMG Communication Department