Substance matters. How news content can reduce political cynicism

This article investigates the impact of strategic and substantive news on political cynicism for
the general public and for younger people (18 - 34 years old) in particular. While studies on
the negative impact of strategic news yielded mixed results, the possible positive impact of
substantive news was not been studied extensively. This article draws on a national voter
panel survey (N=801) conducted before and after the Dutch 2006 elections together with a
content analysis of television and newspaper items during the campaign period. Contrary to
what we expected, we did not find any effect of strategic news on political cynicism. For the
whole population, we find a weak reduction of political cynicism from exposure to
substantive news. Among younger voters this pattern is augmented and we find a clear
negative effect of substantive news on political cynicism. This suggests that young adults can
experience a process of secondary socialization, in which exposure to substantive news may
reverse the ‘spiral of cynicism’.