The influence of media on democratic attitudes and behaviour in post-Soviet Georgia

• Main Author: Japaridze, Nino
• Published: University of Oxford 2012
• Subjects: 320.44758
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.568567

Using a 'plausibility probe' construct, this study empirically evaluates the direct role of media in a democratic transition by examining the relationship between media use in different media environments and the effects of particular media usage on the development of democratic political culture across time in a post-Soviet republic. The study employs a participatory- deliberative theoretical model of democracy and the concept of political culture as comprised by the distribution of political attitudes and behaviour within a society. The study consists of three principal elements: a qualitative media mapping exercise, a quantitative longitudinal analysis of attitudes and behaviour, and a qualitative and quantitative experimental research component. For the qualitative media mapping exercise, I conducted in depth expert interviews to characterize and define different media environments. For the quantitative longitudinal analysis, I operationalized a diverse set of dependent variables as measures of democratic attitudes and behaviour and assessed the independent effects of the use ot'different media types across these defined media environments through bivariate and multivariate regression models during the 1996-2007 period. For the quantitative and qualitative experimental research component, I examined in a natural setting the causal ability of controlled media exposure to bring about attitudinal change in the core democratic value of tolerance and I evaluated the stability of this effect over time. The results of the study present evidence in support of the hypothesized relationship between media use during horizontally diverse media environments and the development of democratic attitudes and behaviour and demonstrate the causal ability of specific forms of media use to change a core democratic value. As a plausibility probe, these findings validate expectations in this 'most likely case,' justify further research on the relationship of media use to political culture in democratic transitions, and suggest the need for further theory development.