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The Lack of Analogic and Digital Information as a Generator of Negative Feelings Towards Politics

Abstract:

Since the last century, various scholars have put forward and demonstrated a number of theories on the effects mass media have on citizens. However, these theories do not pay attention to one of the elements that have become the source of much attention in recent times in the field of political science and communication: the affective domain. In this article, we will approach the feelings towards politics by Spanish population from the point of view of what the effects are of being informed or not about politics. The aim is to find out whether an information deficit on this issue is associated with an increased degree of negative feelings or vice versa. To this end, we will use a battery of seven feelings towards politics. This battery will be subjected to a correlation analysis with the frequency with which political information is followed in the traditional media (radio, TV, press) and the Internet. Besides, we will use mean comparison analysis to find out whether there are differences between the feelings towards politics in those who prefer to inform themselves in digital media, print media or both. Among the main results, it was found that greater exposure to political information is correlated with the fact of showing positive feelings towards politics.