The correspondent, the comic, and the combatant: The consequences of host style in political talk shows

Emily K. Vraga; Stephanie Edgerly; Leticia Bode; D. Jasun Carr; Mitchell Bard; Courtney N. Johnson; Young Mie Kim; Dhavan V. Shah

doi:10.1177/1077699011428575

The correspondent, the comic, and the combatant: The consequences of host style in political talk shows

Emily K. Vraga, Stephanie Edgerly, Leticia Bode, D. Jasun Carr, Mitchell Bard, Courtney N. Johnson, Young Mie Kim, Dhavan V. Shah

Journalism and Mass Communication

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41 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tailored within the increasingly competitive news environment, political talk shows have adopted a range of styles, heralding a rise in "combatant" and "comic" hosts to complement the conventional "correspondent." Using an experimental design to rule out self-selection biases, this study isolates the impact of host style on media judgments. In comparison to the other styles, the correspondent host increases perceptions of informational value, enhances host and program credibility, and reduces erosion of media trust, while a comic host mitigates some of the negative impact compared to a combatant host. Implications for media accountability and democratic functioning are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	5-22
Number of pages	18
Journal	Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
Volume	89
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699011428575
State	Published - Mar 1 2012

Keywords

Journalistic norms
Media credibility
Political communication
Political talk shows

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The correspondent, the comic, and the combatant: The consequences of host style in political talk shows

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