Thursday 26 July 2012

Objectivity doesn't work with the politically disengaged

In Screw Objectivity: Study Finds Opinionated Journalism Boosts Civic Engagement Gregory Ferenstein at Tech Crunch cites studies showing that people who are politically disengaged are more likely to be motivated into action by opinionated articles than by objective articles:
A new experimental study [pdf] finds that opinionated reporting is better at motivating the politically unengaged than objective reporting.

For years, much of the media has assumed that objective education, alone, was enough to promote a healthy democracy. What traditional media failed to realize is that a good chunk of the population needs a reason to care in the first place. “News articles that are written through the eyes of a mere observer, without a perspective or slant, can foster political disaffection among citizens,” explains author Minha Kim of Sungkyunkwan University (note: for the highly politically engaged, objectivity is better, which is explained below).
If you think about it this shouldn't be that surprising. At heart humans are emotional animals.

I find it interesting that people who are highly politically engaged are motivated more by objective reporting.

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