A Divided Nation, As Seen on TV
February 15, 2008
Tell me what you watch (and listen to, and read), and I'll tell you how you vote...
The Zogby/Lear Center Survey on Politics and Entertainment may give candidates some ideas about where to advertise. But the big picture is especially interesting. It turns out that — just as there are conservatives, liberals and moderates — there are people with red, blue and purple taste.
Red
People with red taste (37 percent of the national sample) think a lot of entertainment programming is in bad taste and doesn’t reflect their values. They think that fictional TV shows and movies are politically biased. They don’t like a lot of things on TV, but their two favorite channels are Fox and Fox News. (Each day, Fox — the home of anti-authority satires The Simpsons and Family Guy — draws more than three times as many conservatives as liberals.) They like sports, especially football and auto racing, and they watch news and business programming. They don’t like most contemporary music, and they don’t watch VH1 or MTV. They don’t much like late-night TV. They like to go to sporting events, and on the rare occasions when they go to the movies, they seek out action adventure films. They’re not big book readers, but when they do read, they prefer nonfiction. When they read fiction, they often select mysteries and thrillers. They’re more likely to listen to country and gospel than other people, but their favorite music is classical. They don’t play a lot of video games, but when they do, Madden NFL and Mario are their favorites.
Blue
People with blue taste (39 percent of the whole) like a lot of different types of entertainment, even if it doesn’t reflect their taste or values. They shy away from a lot of prime time programming (especially game shows and reality TV), but they like comedies, drama, documentaries, news and arts and educational programming. They love 60 Minutes, PBS, HBO, Comedy Central and The Daily Show. They go to the movies, where they often see comedies, and they like to go to live theater and museums and galleries. They read books more often than most people; they prefer fiction to nonfiction, but their favorite genre is politics and current events. They enjoy entertainment with political themes, and they feel like they learn about politics from entertainment. Sports are less interesting to them, but football is their favorite, and they’re more likely to follow soccer than other people. They like many different kinds of music (except country), and they watch MTV and VH1. They play video games a lot more than other people; Mario and The Sims are favorites.
Purple
People with purple taste (24 percent of the national sample) like all the broadcast networks and a lot of prime time programming, including police procedurals, game shows and reality programming. They watch a lot of Fox News and they like daytime and children’s programming more than other people. Purple women are the biggest fans of Desperate Housewives, with one in four tuning in each week. They like to read nonfiction, including self-help books and biographies, but they like mysteries and thrillers best. Rock music is their favorite; they don’t like classical or folk music as much as other people. Their favorite video games are Mario, Donkey Kong and Madden NFL. They don’t seek out entertainment with political themes, and they’re far less likely to read books about politics or current events than other people.
Conclusions
One interesting survey finding is that when it comes to entertainment, conservatives are way more PC than liberals.
People on the right (a classification derived from their answers to 24 questions designed to reveal their political values) don’t like to consume entertainment that doesn’t reflect their worldview, and they feel that way about a lot of entertainment. But people at the other end of the political spectrum are voracious in their entertainment consumption. They enjoy watching, reading and listening to plenty of stuff that runs counter to — even offends — their political values. More than 80 percent of liberals say they’re entertained by material that’s in bad taste, but more than 40 percent of conservatives say they’re never entertained by it.
So the next time a Fox News fan talks about how PC liberals are, the liberal so charged should point out that he listens to Rush Limbaugh... and ask the conservative when she last watched Jon Stewart.
About the Project
The USC Annenberg School for Communication’s Norman Lear Center and Zogby International conducted an extensive national survey examining political beliefs and entertainment preferences. The survey, conducted in summer 2007, canvassed 3,939 adults nationwide. The poll’s findings are detailed here.