--- title: How Television Shapes American Democracy description: Studies from the past 40 years have shown that regular, heavy exposure to television can shape your views on violence, gender, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4813250/television-democracy-impact/ author: The Conversation article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-10T13:30:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:21:51.885Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Americans Turned Democracy Into a TV Show og:description: Everyday television shows can have a large impact on political leanings og:url: https://time.com/4813250/television-democracy-impact/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5d91cda51f9fe00/6988d1280b72e373e76ee2fe/comey-tv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Across U.S, Interest High In Former FBI Director Comey's Testimony On Russi og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Americans Turned Democracy Into a TV Show twitter:description: Everyday television shows can have a large impact on political leanings twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5d91cda51f9fe00/6988d1280b72e373e76ee2fe/comey-tv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Americans Turned Democracy Into a TV Show > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [James Shanahan, Indiana University and Michael Morgan, University of Massachusetts Amherst / The Conversation](https://time.com/author/the-conversation/) ## James Shanahan, Indiana University and Michael Morgan, University of Massachusetts Amherst / The Conversation Jun 10, 2017 1:30 PM UTC  A television broadcast of former FBI Director James Comey testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee plays at Ace's Bar, on June 8, 2017 in San Francisco. A television broadcast of former FBI Director James Comey testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee plays at Ace's Bar, on June 8, 2017 in San Francisco. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [James Shanahan, Indiana University and Michael Morgan, University of Massachusetts Amherst / The Conversation](https://time.com/author/the-conversation/) ## James Shanahan, Indiana University and Michael Morgan, University of Massachusetts Amherst / The Conversation Jun 10, 2017 1:30 PM UTC Many gallons of ink (and megabytes of electronic text) have been devoted to explaining the surprise victory of Donald Trump. Reasons range from [white working-class resentment](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/white-working-class-trump-cultural-anxiety/525771/), to FBI Director James Comey’s decision to [reopen the Hillary Clinton email investigation](http://www.thedailybeast.com/comey-tries-to-warn-america-both-parties-ask-about-hillarys-emails-instead), to [low turnout](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/11/10/why-did-trump-win-in-part-because-voter-turnout-plunged/?utm%5Fterm=.1c0e783f027d). All likely played some role. It would be a mistake to think the election turned on one single factor. However, a study we conducted during the campaign – just published in the [Journal of Communication](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1111/jcom.12297/abstract) – suggests an additional factor that should be added into the mix: television. We’re not talking about cable news or the billions in [free media](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html) given to Trump or political advertising. Rather, we’re talking about regular, everyday television – the sitcoms, cop shows, workplace dramas and reality TV series that most heavy viewers consume for at least several hours a day – and the effect this might have on your political leanings. ### An authoritarian ethos [Studies from the past 40 years](http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0019.xml) have shown that regular, heavy exposure to television can shape your views on violence, gender, science, health, religion, minorities and more. Meanwhile, 20 years ago, we conducted [studies](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1991.tb02294.x/full) in the U.S. and Argentina that found that the more you watch television, the more likely you’ll embrace authoritarian tendencies and perspectives. Heavy American and Argentinian television viewers have a greater sense of fear, anxiety and mistrust. They value conformity, see the “other” as a threat and are uncomfortable with diversity. There’s probably a reason for this. Gender, ethnic and racial stereotypes [continue to be prevalent](http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/11/geena-davis-institute-women-girls-are-stereotyped-sexualized-hollywood/) [in many shows](https://www.thoughtco.com/common-racial-stereotypes-in-movies-television-2834718). Television tends to distill complex issues into simpler forms, while the use of violence as an approach to solving problems is glorified. Many fictional programs, from “Hawaii Five-O” to “The Flash,” feature [formulaic violence](http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/tv-violence-and-art-asking-wrong-question), with a brave hero who protects people from danger and restores the rightful order of things. In short, television programs often feature an authoritarian ethos when it comes to how characters are valued and how problems are solved. ### Viewing habits and Trump support Given this, we were intrigued when, during the campaign, [we saw studies suggesting](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533) that holding authoritarian values was a powerful predictor of support for Trump. We wondered: If watching television contributes to authoritarianism, and if authoritarianism is a driving force behind support for Trump, then might television viewing – indirectly, by way of cultivating authoritarianism – contribute to support for Trump? About two months before the party conventions were held, we conducted an online national survey with over 1,000 adults. We asked people about their preferred candidate. (At the time, the candidates in the race were Clinton, Sanders and Trump.) We then questioned them about their television viewing habits – how they consumed it, and how much time they spent watching. We also asked a series of questions used by political scientists to measure a person’s authoritarian tendencies – specifically, which qualities are more important for a child to have: independence or respect for their elders; curiosity or good manners; self-reliance or obedience; being considerate or being well-behaved. (In each pair, the second answer is considered to reflect more authoritarian values.) Confirming our own earlier studies, heavy viewers scored higher on the authoritarian scale. And confirming others’ studies, more authoritarian respondents strongly leaned toward Trump. More importantly, we also found that authoritarianism “mediated” the effect of watching a lot of television on support for Trump. That is, heavy viewing and authoritarianism, taken together in sequence, had a significant relationship with preference for Trump. This was unaffected by gender, age, education, political ideology, race and news viewing. We’re not the first to note that entertainment can have political consequences. In a Slate article shortly after the election, writer David Canfield [argued](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/11/29/how%5Fcbs%5Fs%5F2016%5Fshows%5Fcatered%5Fto%5Ftrump%5Fs%5Famerica.html) that prime-time television is filled with programming that is “xenophobic,” “fearmongering,” “billionaire-boosting” and “science-rejecting.” What we think of “harmless prime-time escapism,” he continued, actually “reinforces the exclusionary agenda put forth by the Trump campaign.” Our data reveal that this was not simply speculation. None of this means that television played the decisive role in the triumph of Donald Trump. But Trump offered a persona that fit perfectly with the authoritarian mindset nurtured by television. What we think of as “mere entertainment” can have a very real effect on American politics. [James Shanahan](https://theconversation.com/profiles/james-shanahan-382456), Dean of the Media School, [_Indiana University_](http://theconversation.com/institutions/indiana-university-1368) and [Michael Morgan](https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-morgan-382442), Professor Emeritus of Communication, [_University of Massachusetts Amherst_](http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-massachusetts-amherst-1563) This article was originally published on [The Conversation](http://theconversation.com). Read the [original article](https://theconversation.com/how-tv-cultivates-authoritarianism-and-helped-elect-trump-78981). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4813250/television-democracy-impact/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4813250/television-democracy-impact/"},"headline":"How Americans Turned Democracy Into a TV Show","datePublished":"2017-06-10T13:30:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:21:51.885Z","description":"Everyday television shows can have a large impact on political leanings","url":"https://time.com/4813250/television-democracy-impact/","keywords":["Television","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5d91cda51f9fe00/6988d1280b72e373e76ee2fe/comey-tv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Shanahan, Indiana University and Michael Morgan, University of Massachusetts Amherst / The Conversation"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5d91cda51f9fe00/6988d1280b72e373e76ee2fe/comey-tv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Across U.S, Interest High In Former FBI Director Comey's Testimony On Russi","caption":"Across U.S, Interest High In Former FBI Director Comey's Testimony On Russi","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4813250/television-democracy-impact/","name":"How Americans Turned Democracy Into a TV Show"}}]}] ```