Will Conflict Tear us Apart? The Effects of Conflict and Valenced Media Messages on Polarizing Attitudes Toward EU Immigration and Border Control
- Author(s)
- Marijan van Klingeren, Hajo Boomgaarden, Claes de Vreese
- Abstract
European migration and border control has occupied a prominent spot on the European political agenda. The news media present the topic in a polarized fashion and reports conflicting viewpoints on how the European Union (EU) and national governments should address the issue. We argue that this conflict in news messages can have a polarizing effect on public perceptions regarding the EU's performance on this topic, and that this effect can be moderated by the valence of news messages. A two-wave online panel survey experiment was conducted on a representative sample of the Dutch population (n = 376). The results indicate that conflict reinforces and thus polarizes policy attitudes, whereas a message's valence can change people's attitudes, which reduces the attitudinal gap. The implications of these findings concerning European border control and migration are discussed in the final section of this paper.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- University of Amsterdam (UvA)
- Journal
- Public Opinion Quarterly
- Volume
- 81
- Pages
- 543-563
- No. of pages
- 21
- ISSN
- 0033-362X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfw051
- Publication date
- 05-2017
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508009 Media research, 508008 Media analysis
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all), Communication, History, History and Philosophy of Science, Sociology and Political Science
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/will-conflict-tear-us-apart-the-effects-of-conflict-and-valenced-media-messages-on-polarizing-attitudes-toward-eu-immigration-and-border-control(37042de6-a131-4ae2-999e-def3f92f6d51).html