A number of studies have consistently shown that TV news makes people dumber: more misinformed, more irrational, more confused, and less able to draw reasonable conclusions or make good decisions.
Iyengar, S. 1991. Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press.
Iyengar, S. et Kinder, D. R. 1987. News That Matters: Television and American Opinion. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press.
The New Videomalaise : Effects of Televised Incivility on Political Trust DC Mutz - American Political Science Review, 2005 - Cambridge Univ Press http://www.jstor.org/pss/30038915
My M.Sc. in PolSci was useful after all... A third of my master thesis is on that very subject, but it's in french...
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I had friends in high school who had post-middle-age parents who were absolutely insane politically. Magnets covering their fridge, signs in their yard, on their walls; their house was just full of propaganda. And they would sit there after school watching the fucking news and getting outraged every time they were supposed to. It's clockwork for these news channels.
While I believe that and I like the conclusion, my inner rationalist screams:
[citation needed]
:).
Not saying those channels are perfect, but not all TV is created equal.
I think only part of the problem with mainstream TV news is inherent in the medium. There's a lot of effort put into making it infotainment.
The medium is not the same thing as the type of content.
True, it's a generalization, but it's a useful generalization if majority of content specific to a given medium seems to have the same properties.