A series of polls in 2003 showed that people who primarily got their news from the Fox News Channel were significantly more likely to believe that Iraq had played a part in the 9/11 attacks. Many people saw this as evidence of the way the media shaped public opinion, but some believed that those who already believed this simply gravitated to Fox. This is an example of
A) textual poaching.
B) encoding/decoding.
C) reinforcement theory.
D) agenda-setting theory.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Reinforcement theory suggests that media can reinforce existing beliefs and attitudes, rather than changing them. In this case, people who already believed that Iraq was involved in 9/11 might have been drawn to Fox News because its coverage reinforced their beliefs.

A Series of Polls in 2003 Showed That People Who