In-Your-Face Politics

Winner of the 2016 David O. Sears Book Award, International Society of Political Psychology Finalist for the 2015 Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism and Mass Communication Research Award One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2015 "With ample humor and sufficient exposition for a lay audience, she conducts and analyzes a series of experiments carefully crafted to study how extreme close-ups and uncivil behavior in political TV affect the public discourse... An approachable yet scientifically rigorous look at what passes for political discourse in America."--Kirkus "[Mutz's] lively and lucid book sheds light on the relationship between political programming and public engagement."--- Glenn Altschuler, Huffington Post "Mutz offers an engagingly readable, data-rich work on mediated politics of a particular kind... In-Your-Face Politics is strongly recommended for college and university libraries."--Choice "This book is likely to join Mutz's previous work as an indispensable contribution to the political communication and psychology literatures... It is probably a rare thing to call an academic text entertaining, but Mutz has been among my favorite scholars to read, and this book was no exception. Balancing thoroughness with accessibility, the writing will satisfy serious academics while appealing to a more general audience. The book should serve as a model for anyone who wants to do good political science and write about it in a clear and personable manner."--Bryan T. Gervais, Public Opinion Quarterly "In In-Your-Face Politics, Diana C. Mutz's innovative approach to a controversial topic has produced a variety of fascinating insights... An exciting and impressive addition to the political television literature. Although many have ranted about political television, Professor Mutz generated the elusive evidence required to elevate our conversation. The result is a book that should be read by all serious students of political television."--Craig Allen Smith, Congress & the Presidency

Diana C. Mutz is the Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where she serves as director of the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics at the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Her books include Population-Based Survey Experiments (Princeton), Hearing the Other Side, and Impersonal Influence.

List of Illustrations ix List of Tables xiii Acknowledgments xv Chapter 1 What Is "In-Your-Face" Politics? 1 Part I What Difference Does It Make? The Effects of In-Your-Face Political Television 17 Chapter 2 The Consequences of In-Your-Face Politics for Arousal and Memory 19 Chapter 3 Effects on Public Perceptions of the Legitimacy of the Opposition 46 Chapter 4 The Costs of In-Your-Face Politics for Political Trust 73 Part II When Does In-Your-Face Politics Matter? 93 Chapter 5 Real-World Contexts 95 Chapter 6 Who Watches This Stuff Anyway? The Audience for In-Your-Face Politics 116 Part III Historical Implications for Political Television 151 Chapter 7 Does the Medium Matter? 153 Chapter 8 How Politics on Television Has Changed 178 Chapter 9 Making Politics Palatable: Political Television in an Era of Choice 193 Appendix A Summary of Experimental Designs 223 Appendix B Summary of Experimental Dependent Variables 225 Appendix C National Survey Questions for Orientation toward Conflict Communication Scales 230 Appendix D Coding Form for Political Television Programs 231 Appendix E Coding Instructions for Televised Conflicts 233 Notes 239 References 247 Index 257