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Communication, Consumption, and Civil Society:
Media and Politics at the Checkout Line
Dhavan V. Shah
Louis A. & Mary E. Maier-Bascom Professor
Director, Mass Communication Research Center
Scientific Director, Center for Health Enhancement System Studies
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Department of Political Science (affiliated)
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (affiliated)
“We Are What We Buy”
Is That a Good Thing?
A Winding, Twisted Tale

“A line of research is rarely straight”

This one is characterized by corrections,
extensions, reorientations, and revisions
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The assumptions that began this work a
decade ago have been fully inverted
Media and Collective Action
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Erosion of social capital linked to TV
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“Mean world” and “time-displacement”
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Neither received much support
Schor implicates individualism
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Commercial appeals and “consumer culture”
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A third account of media-social capital link
Media and Consumption
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Participation linked to news use
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Negative from TV entertainment
Media also shapes consumption
Status consciousness = commercial appeals
 Socially conscious = news exposure
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Yet politics pervades entertainment TV
and news contains many brand appeals
“The Citizen-Consumer: Media Effects at the Intersection of
Consumer and Civic Culture” Heejo Keum, Narayan Devanathan,
Sameer Deshpande, Michelle R. Nelson, and Dhavan V. Shah,
Political Communication, 21(3): 369-391, July-September 2004.
Bourdieu and Cultural Capital

Cultural goods circulate as forms of
power, markers of class distinction

Access to social circles gained through
consumption of fashion, art, media
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Connects cultural and social capital
Cultural Capital in America
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France in 1960s — stable class structure
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US in 2000s – social positioning less fixed
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Consumption can shapes cultural position
A relational approach to consumption
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Each choice is a difference, a distinction, a
property of the gap with other options
Correspondence Analysis

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Replicate Bourdieu’s analytic strategy

1st dimension: Overall volume of the capital

2nd dimension: Composition of capital
Fix space on occupation, income,
education, and population density

Map on consumption, media use, social
behaviors, and civic engagement
High Volume
Cultural Capital
/Economic Capital
Economic Capital
/Cultural Capital
“Capital, Consumption, Communication, and Citizenship: The
Social Positioning of Taste and Civic Culture in the U.S,” Lewis
Friedland, Dhavan V. Shah, Nam-Jin Lee, Mark A. Rademacher,
Lucy Atkinson, and Thomas Hove. Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science. 611: 31-49, May 2007
Cultural Capital
/Economic Capital
Economic Capital
/Cultural Capital
Low Volume
Established Professionals
Highly Educated
Prestige News Media
High Culture and Art
International Travel
Check and Letter Activism
Environmental
Community Work
Executives and Sales
High Income
Mainstream Paper
Fashion and High-End Retail
Stay at Luxury Hotels
Skiing, Golf, and Tennis
Little Civic Engagement
Service Workers
Broadcast News Media
Urban Sophisticates
Volunteerism & Membership
Ideological Moderates
Social Dramas & Info TV
Technicians
Youthful
Sports & Drink
Hyper-Technological
Highly Sexualized
Car Magazines - SUV
Older
Conservative
Female Homemakers
Church Attendance
Religious Programs
Moralist / Justice Dramas
Local News Viewing
Urban
Working Class
Police Reality TV
Black Sitcoms
Discount Shopping
Low-No Church
Anti-Civic
Gambling
Low Income
Low Education
Live at Home
Soap Operas
Print Tabloids
Few Civic Practices
Younger
Exurban
Industry & Service
Rock n’ Roll
Youth Media
Outdoor Life
Gearhead
NASCAR
Porn
Social Space in America

Clear correspondence between civic
behavior, ideology, and positioning of taste

Communal-individualist on horizontal axis


Refined v. course, nurturing v. competitive
Importance of gender and age in US

Reveals elements missing from Bourdieu
Gender and Generation

Does gender structure a preference for a
particular form of cultural capital

How does this differ across generational
groups — Civic, Boomers, Gen X
“Gender and Generation in the Social Positioning of Taste,”
Nam-jin Lee, Christine L. Garlough, Lewis Friedland, and
Dhavan V. Shah. The ANNALS of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, 644, 134-146, November 2012.
Citizens and Consumers

Changing terrain by age and gender

Gender no longer structures preference for
communal v. individual among younger

Refinement and nurturance less defining of
femininity or masculinity for Gen. X.

Differences demand deeper attention
Complicating Consumption

Mistake to “draw a sharp line” between
consumption and citizenship

Consumer choices can be public-spirited
• Cafes in 18th c. Europe; Brand Communities
• Boycotting Walmart, Heinz Ketchup
• “Buycotting” and Conscious Consumption
The Consumer-Citizen

Growing alignment of consumptive and civic
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Human Rights and anti-sweatshop
Unfair labor practices and fair trade
Environmentalism and eco-consumption
Patriotism and nationalistic buying
Localism and boycotting chain retailers
Anti-globalism and multi-national QSR
Global health and “Red” campaign
New form of participation?
Political Consumerism

Using the market as an arena for politics
• Stolle, Hooghe & Micheletti, 2005

Treat global markets as ethical systems
‘Positive buying’ - ethical products favored
 ‘Boycotting’ – unethical products avoided

• McMurtry, 1998, Bennett, 1998

Related to socially conscious consumption,
moral purchasing, ethical sourcing, green
consumerism, sustainable production
Political Consumerism

Using the market as an arena for politics
• Stolle, Hooghe & Micheletti, 2005

Treat global markets as ethical systems
‘Positive buying’ - ethical products favored
 ‘Boycotting’ – unethical products avoided

• McMurtry, 1998, Bennett, 1998

Related to socially conscious consumption,
moral purchasing, ethical sourcing, green
consumerism, sustainable production
Shaping Consumer Practices

Who is a socially conscious consumer and why?

What is the role of media and talk in this dynamic?

What about the Internet and political consumption?

Is political consumerism really increasing?

If so, what explains change over time?
“Political Consumerism: How Communication Practices and
Consumption Orientations Drive ‘Lifestyle Politics’,” Dhavan V.
Shah, Douglas M. McLeod, Eunkyung Kim, Sun Young Lee, Melissa
Gotlieb, Shirley Ho, and Hilde Brevik. Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science. 611: 217-235, May 2007.
Theorized Model
Panel Data Around Election 2004

National panel survey

February 2002 and November 2004
• 1,484 completed surveys, 60.1% response against mail out

Robust and reliable measures of political
consumption, conventional and Internet news
use, and political expression and concerns

Control for age, gender, race, income, education,
religiosity, ideology, moral obligation, trust in
government, and other media use
Testing of Model
“Lifestyle” Politics

Observe associations of communication and
consumption orientations on lifestyle politics
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Conventional and online news to political
consumption through expression and concerns
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Political talk – communication mediation
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Environmental concerns – conscious consumption
Replicated cross-sectional model with fixed
effects model to examine over time change
Born to Buy

The socialization of political consumption
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The role of the Internet and negative ads

Merge datasets:

(1) content-coded ad-buy data on
placement of campaign messages on a
market-by-market and program-by-program
basis
“The Civic Consequences of “Going Negative”: Attack Ads and
Adolescents’
Knowledge,
Consumption,
Participation,” dyads
Ming Wang,
 (2) U.S.
survey
data of and
parent-child
Itay Gabay, and Dhavan V. Shah, The ANNALS of the American
collected
Academy
of Politicalaround
and Social 2008
Science,election
644, 256-271, November 2012.
Adolescents and Political Ads

Campaign ad placement and content data on
every message in U.S. media markets
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Algorithm of volume and negativity of exposure based on each
respondents viewing patterns - individual propensity estimation
• Vast majority of ads concentrated in local news programs, morning news
programs, game shows, soap operas and daytime talk shows

Accounts for (a) localized nature of ad placement, (b)
differences in potential for exposure based on individual’s
viewing patterns, and (c) content of ads
Digital Natives During Elections
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Online news and political social network
use related to political engagement –
participation and consumerism
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Negativity of political ad exposure
suppressed political consumerism, though
volume of ads support such activism
Reconfiguring Consumption
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Communication central to politics of
consumption, but in complex ways
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The social positioning of taste
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The potential of political consumerism
Began with simplistic concerns; arrive at
serious reconsideration; new questions
Politics of Consumption Conference

http://www.journalism.wisc.edu/cccp/
 Two issues of the ANNALS
 Conference every five years – next in 2016?
Born to Buy (and Boycott)
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The socialization of consumption

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… and political consumption?
Role of family, school, peers, and media
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Developmental differences from early to late
adolescence in terms of influencers
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Parental, peer, and school influences
weaken while communication practices
grow stronger among late adolescents.
Future Voters Study in 2008

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National survey of adolescents in June 2008
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Stratified sample of households with children age 12-17
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1,325 completed surveys returned
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1,231 usable responses after cleaning
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33.1% response against mailout of 4,000
Parent-child dyads complete the survey
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Robust and reliable measures of family norms, classroom
deliberation, and peer norms, political talk, news habit,
political messaging, and political consumerism
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Consistent performance for early and late adolescents
Hypothesized Model
Summary of Testing
weighted least
squares with
adjusted means
and variances
Developmental Differences
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Overall model holds for adolescents
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Parental, peer, and school factors work
through communication practices
Developmental changes reveal differences
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Peer and school influences stronger early
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Communication practices stronger late
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Political consumerism as youth engagement
But Does it Matter?
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Stolle & Michelitti, 2013; Keum et al., 2004
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Trace effects on consumers and corporations
Ex. Political consumerism positively linked to other
forms of civic engagement, not a trade off
Ex. Evidence of “positive buying” opening up markets
such as ‘fair trade” and “organic”

McConnell & King, 2013
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Firms react to boycotts by upping charitable activities
Activists can spur firms to respond to stakeholders
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