Showing papers by "Mark Boukes published in 2016"

How Newspaper Reports Affect Evaluations of Political Candidates

Abstract: News coverage has become more visual and research suggests that news images affect assessments of political candidates. This study experimentally investigates the effects of textual versus visual on assessments of politicians’ competency and integrity, differentially for males and females. The results show that differences in visual favorability, combined with positive or negative verbal information, shape how people perceive male and female political candidates. The findings suggest that images do matter, but not more so than text, and their impact varies depending on the type of assessment and candidate gender. The results are discussed in light of the image superiority effect and its applicability to candidate communication.

Image Versus Text: How Newspaper Reports Affect Evaluations of Political Candidates

Abstract: News coverage has become more visual and research suggests that news images affect assessments of political candidates. This study experimentally investigates the effects of textual versus visual on assessments of politicians’ competency and integrity, differentially for males and females. The results show that differences in visual favorability, combined with positive or negative verbal information, shape how people perceive male and female political candidates. The findings suggest that images do matter, but not more so than text, and their impact varies depending on the type of assessment and candidate gender. The results are discussed in light of the image superiority effect and its applicability to candidate communication.

Politician Seeking Voter: How Interviews on Entertainment Talk Shows Affect Trust in Politicians

Abstract: During election campaigns, politicians regularly feature on entertainment talk shows in which they are typically approached in uncritical and positive manners. To test how such appearances affect trust in politicians, we conducted an online experiment with a Dutch adult sample in which participants were randomly allocated to see an entertainment talk show interview, a current affairs program interview with the same politician, or a control condition without exposure. Findings demonstrate that exposure to the talk show interview affected participants’ trust in politicians. Moreover, this effect was strongly moderated by political knowledge. Trust in politicians was positively affected by talk show exposure among individuals with low political knowledge, but negatively for those with the most political knowledge.