Research is showing that TV viewers don’t develop their ideas about the president and national politics just by watching the news, crime dramas may have influence their political attitudes as well; in particular regular viewer see crime as one of the top issues facing our country.

The study also reinforced the earlier findings that viewers of crime dramas are more likely to judge the president on how he handles crime.

“Entertainment programs that have just a small bit of political content may serve as a cue for people about how to think, especially for those who watch regularly,” said R. Andrew Holbrook, from the Dpt of political science at Ohio State University.

Preliminary evidence from a study still underway suggests that doctor dramas like ER affect political views about health care.

Regular viewers of ER are more likely than others to think that health care is a top issue, and they are more likely to evaluate the president on his handling of the health care issue.

The results of all these studies cast new light on the debate about the blurring of lines between news and entertainment programs, said Kathleen McGraw, from the Ohio State’s Department of Political Science.

“Our results suggest that people don’t have neat dividing lines in their brains between entertainment and political news. People go back and forth between the two rather easily. That doesn’t mean they don’t know the difference between entertainment and reality. But they find they can use examples from television programs to illustrate points in real life.”

Via Research News.