How You Watch Television News Matters: A Panel Analysis of Second Screening and Political Learning from the News

ABSTRACT

This study draws from cognitive theories of learning to examine the role of different forms of television news viewing in political knowledge. Data from two-wave panel data reveal that performing an additional task unrelated to television news, or task-irrelevant second screening, is related to detrimental cognitive outcomes. Unlike past research, performing an additional task relevant to television news, or task-relevant second screening, does not contribute to political learning. Television news exposure is positively related to political learning. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Between the first and second waves of data collection, the secretary of defense changed. Thus, we changed the answer options for this particular question (see supplementary material for details). To evaluate whether the results were sensitive to the inclusion or omission of this item, we constructed a measure of political knowledge excluding this item and estimated the original model. Results from this analysis were substantively similar to the results reported in the main text: χ²(65) = 225.532, p < .001, CFI = .966, RMSEA = .062; SRMR = .036.

² Following a reviewer’s suggestion, we created a measure of political knowledge removing static systems- and policy-level items (i.e., the term of office of members of the House of Councilors, the name of an international treaty designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from which the U.S. recently withdrew, the word that means, “guess the feeling of others,” commonly used in the issue of Moritomo Gakuen) and estimated the same model with this new measure. Results from this analysis were substantively equivalent: χ²(65) = 230.638, p < .001, CFI = .963, RMSEA = .063; SRMR = .037.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hoso Bunka Foundation

Notes on contributors

Masahiro Yamamoto

Masahiro Yamamoto (Ph.D., Washington State University) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research interests include media trust, political knowledge, and news media effects

Weina Ran

Weina Ran (Ph.D., Washington State University) is a lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her research interests include the effects of media multi tasking, media effects on public health, and persuasion in entertainment education.

Shan Xu

Shan Xu(Ph.D., The OhioState University) is an assistant professor in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University. One of her research interests is the use of real-time and longitudinal data with formaldynamic models to study the reciprocity between media choices and media effects.