- Research on the effect of media portrayals of XR Archived Message
Posted by Ian M
on June 16, 2019, 9:31 pm
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Interesting that people with centrist or rightwing politics aren't completely put off by media reports and surprising that BBC coverage led to better perceptions of XR and the need for civil disobedience. I ***** http://www.benkenward.com/XRSurvey/how_exposure_to_media_about_the_2019_London_April_Rebellion_affected_the_UK_general_public.pdf How exposure to media about the 2019 London April Rebellion affected the UK general public Dr.Ben Kenward, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Oxford Brookes University [...] Cameron Brick, Research Associate, Department of Psychology, Cambridge University Brief summary Method: In an internet experiment started on the eveningof April 15th, 1500 participants viewed either:a BBC news reporton the Rebellion, a Daily Mail articleon the Rebellion, a direct social-media-style Rebel video report from a barricade, or no relevant media (control). Participants then answered questions about intentions and opinions. Due to representative sampling for age, gender and ethnicity,andweighting for education and political stance, the results can be seen as well-representative of the UK populations’reaction to such media. Results and conclusions: BBC news and direct Rebel messaging caused increases in the public’s belief in the necessity of civil disobedience. Further, direct Rebel messaging increased claimed intentions to participate in civil disobedience, and decreased satisfaction with Government action, although neither of these were influenced by the BBC report. The Daily Mail article had no detectable effects on these opinions and intentions. The effects of direct Rebel messaging apparently applied equally across the left-right political spectrum. This suggeststhat it may be possible for XR to reach the political centre (or even centre-right) more easily than might have been anticipated.None of the mediaincreased concern about environmental issues, but this concern was already very high. There is some evidence that support for a Citizen’s Assembly, though high overall, was slightly degraded by exposure to the Daily Mail report. XR should be careful with its messaging around Citizen’s Assemblies. Aim and method Thisreport describes an experiment in which participants were exposed to different forms of media that reported on the first day of the London April Rebellion, in order to test media effects on different opinions and intentionsrelevant to the crises.Participants were tested between the evenings of Monday 15thApril and Tuesday 16thApril (between one-halfand two days into the rebellion), with most tested early in this period. They were recruited over the internet, viewed media, and then answered key questions. ¼ of the sample was shown a 3 min BBC news clipdescribingevents primarilyon Waterloo bridge at lunchtime of the 15th, ¼ read a Daily Mail articleon the Rebellion, and¼ viewed a 3.5 min video of a Rebeljustifying the actions. A further ¼ were not informed about the action, for a comparison sample (they watched an unrelated BBC news videoabout Shakespeare’s house in London).The BBC and Daily Mail coverage were both relatively neutral. The Rebel video was a very compressed version of the Heading for Extinction line of argument, aimed (through choice of personal appearance and nuance of language) at the political centre. All media used and the full questionnaire are available at https://osf.io/tvm7q/files/. [... main body of data & interpretation - see above link for full version] Overall conclusions Both a BBC news report and direct Rebel messaging causedincreases in the public’s belief in the necessity of civil disobedience. It’s notable that the effects were appreciable after a single message exposure. Further, direct Rebel messaging increased claimed intentions to participate in civil disobedience, and decreased satisfaction with Government action. It is noteworthy that these effects apparently applied equally across the political spectrum. This result speaks to a frequently occurringdebate between XR strategists –is it moreimportant to use messaging designed to mobilise the most obvious potential support base (the green left), or to use messaging designed for a broader audience? The current results suggest that it may be possible for XR to reach the political centre (or even centre-right) more easily than might have been anticipated.Given the large size of those demographics in the population, XR messaging strategy could benefit from bearing this is mind.Exposure to a Daily Mail article caused no effects on opinions or intentions –however, it should be noted that the article used was (by Daily Mail standards) moderately neutral and this does not mean that other articles in the right-wing press do notcause problems for XR.Although support for a Citizen’s Assembly is high (see previous report “Report on public opinion concerning Citizens Assemblies to tackle climate and ecological breakdown”), analyses of this data which are not demographically weighted (details available separately) indicate that exposure to XR as reported by the Daily Mail can reduce support for a Citizen’s Assembly. The fact that weighting weakens this effect so that the effect is not outside the margin of error suggests that the effect is not large in the population as a whole, but is a factor amongst some demographics. XR should be aware that its association with the concept of a Citizens Assembly is not always positive. This could be, for example, because people don’t fully understand the concept and imagine that it means undue influence from Rebelson policy.The first author of this report has personally observed confusion amongst Rebels themselves between Citizens Assemblies and the assemblies that Rebels use for discussion and decision making. It’s recommended that the latter be called Rebel Assemblies rather than Peoples Assemblies, as Citizens and Peoples are arguable too easy to mix-up. |
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