Thesis
The 'citizen-partisan dilemma': the impact of nationalism and ideology on misperceptions towards publicized truth claims about foreign affairs
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2014
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101915
Abstract
One can be a citizen in tandem with a partisan. Therefore, nationalism and ideology are two political antecedents to people's perceptions of contested issues such as foreign affairs. In gauging which political attribute is more dominant and becomes the ultimate determinant of political beliefs, especially when other countries are involved, people may switch from the identity of a partisan to that of a citizen, so that the impact of nationalism on political beliefs may supersede ideology, creating belief gaps between nationalists and non-nationalists. Relying on an online survey designed to test people's political perceptions towards six different types of statements (N = 275), the author found partisan media exposure a predictor of both ideology and nationalism, two variables that are correlated but theoretically and empirically independent. Moreover, ideology, previously deemed to be a strong predictor of political misperceptions, fails to be a criterion in this case; rather, nationalism is distinguished to have closer association than ideology with misperceptions of publicized truth claims of foreign affairs, suggesting the possible shift of political identity from affiliating with a party to affiliating with a country when international issues are concerned. This phenomenon, labeled as the "Citizen-Partisan Dilemma", implies that political elites can muffle partisan cacophony by strategically emphasizing nationalism through media in an attempt to create temporary consensus or distract public attention from domestic conflicts.
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Details
- Title
- The 'citizen-partisan dilemma'
- Creators
- Zhiming Xu
- Contributors
- Douglas Blanks Hindman (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525157401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis