Spiral of Cynicism The Press and the Public Good

Why do some citizens vote while others do not? Why does less than half ofthe American voting public show routinely show up at the polls? Why is it thatthe vast majority of political issues that affect our day-to-day lives fail togenerate either public interest or understanding? These questions have troubledpolitical scientists for decades. Many have long suspected that the media playsan important role in the growth of public cynicism and the decline of voterparticipation. In Spiral of Cynicism, renowned communication scholar KathleenHall Jamieson, and Joseph N. Cappella provide the first conclusive evidence todate that it is indeed how the print and broadcast media cover political eventsand issues that fuels vote non-participation.The media's heavy focus on the game of politics, rather than on itssubstance, starts the spiral of cynicism that directly causes an erosion ofcitizen interest, and, ultimately, citizen participation. By observing voterswho watched and read different sets of reports--some saturated in strategy talk,others focused on the real issues--the authors show decisive links between theway in which the media covers campaigns' and voters' levels of cynicism andparticipation. By closely monitoring media coverage among sample audiences forboth the recent mayoral race in Philadelphia and the national health care reformdebate, the authors address questions about the effects if issue-based andcompetitive-based political coverage. Finally, they address the questionrepeatedly asked by news editors, "Will the public read or watch an alternativemedia coverage that has more substance?" The answer is a clear "yes."A pathbreaking work, Spiral of Cynicism will demand that the media take aclose look at how it covers political events and issues, as well as its degreeof culpability in current vote dissatisfaction, cynicism, and non-participation.In providing a possible cure to the current spiral of cynicism, Jamieson andCappella set the terms of the debate about how politics ought to be covered inthe future.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson is Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of a number of books, including Packaging the Presidency which won the Winans-Wichelns Book Award, and Eloquence in an Electronic Age which won the Speech Communication Association's Golden Anniversary Book Award, and Dirty Politics. Joseph N. Cappella is Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellow of the International Communication Association. He is the author Multivariate Techniques in Human Communication Research and Sequence and Pattern Communication Behaviors.