The Media as a Window on the Past? The Impact of Television and Newspaper Consumption on Knowledge of the Democratic Transition in Portugal

Abstract

This study seeks to expand our understanding of how the media increase the level of political information, by focusing on an understudied yet important learning outcome: knowledge of the political past. The article explores the factors underlying variation in the recognition of the leading actors in the transitional process in Portugal. The results show that television news and newspaper exposure foster recognition of these actors, but that media use interacts with personal experience of the transition (stronger effects among younger cohorts) and party identification (stronger impact on those who do not feel close to a political party).

Keywords:

• Political knowledge
• media effects
• democratic transition
• political past
• Portugal

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the anonymous referees for their suggestions, as well as Goffredo Adinolfi and Pedro Magalhães for their comments when an earlier version of this paper was discussed at a meeting of the ICS’s social and political attitudes research group. Any shortcomings and remaining mistakes are exclusively the author’s responsibility.

Notes

1. The Quality of Democracy Barometer (http://www.bqd.ics.ul.pt/) is a research structure based at the Institute of the Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, since 2010. The 2014 survey, aimed to measure political attitudes and satisfaction with democracy during the fortieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, was conducted by GfK Metris among a representative sample of the population aged 15 or over residing in Portugal. Respondents were selected using the quota method, based on a matrix that crosses the variables Sex, Age, Education, Occupation, Region, and Habitat/Settlement. The information was collected through direct personal interviews. The data are available upon request sent to Ms. Gorbunova ([email protected]).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

José Santana-Pereira

José Santana-Pereira, PhD in political and social sciences (European University Institute, Florence, 2012), is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon. His research interests comprise elections, public opinion, political attitudes and behaviour, media and politics and the organisation and effects of political campaigns. His work has been published in journals such as Electoral Studies and South European Society and Politics.