Running head: „DARK AREAS OF IGNORANCE‟ REVISITED „Dark Areas of Ignorance‟ Revisited: Comparing International Affairs Knowledge in Switzerland and the US (Communication Research, forthcoming, 2009)

This study tests the hypothesis that cross-national differences in public awareness of international affairs are attributable to differences in the supply of international news and citizens‟ demand for information. Simultaneously, we compared the level of news coverage accorded specific “target” subjects in major Swiss and US news organizations and the level of attentiveness to news among Swiss and US citizens. Our results revealed that Swiss media provided more hard international news than US media, Swiss citizens reported higher levels of news exposure, and the Swiss were also considerably more informed than the Americans on questions of hard news. Using a multi-level model, we further demonstrate that the effects of news on knowledge are stronger in Switzerland and that the greater availability of international news has the effect of reducing the knowledge gap between more and less attentive Swiss. „Dark Areas of Ignorance‟ Revisited 1 Informed citizenship is a fundamental premise of democratic government. Deliberation over issues, participation in the political process, and holding elected officials accountable all presuppose an electorate capable of expressing informed opinions. In modern democracies, the institution entrusted with delivering costless access to public affairs information is the news media. In recent years, however, the rapid expansion of market-based news programming and the accompanying dilution of governmental regulation over the broadcast media have called into question the media‟s ability to make good on this civic responsibility. Although news organizations across the globe are turning to more entertainmentcentered forms of reporting and delivery (Hallin & Mancini, 2004; Hamilton, 2004; Patterson, 1993), there remains significant cross-national variability in the importance of market forces to news programming. Market forces have advanced the furthest in the United States, but their impact on news programming is not as pervasive in societies where elements of a “public service” media system remain intact (Hallin & Mancini, 2004). An important consequence of the difference between market-based and public serviceoriented media systems is the level of coverage accorded international news. The market-based model is associated with the rise of “soft news” and a corresponding reduction in the supply of international news (Moisy, 1996). Thus, declining revenues prompted American news organizations to scale back their overseas bureaus and staff (Norris, 1996). In the public-service model, on the other hand, there is less pressure to reduce the substantive and international components of news programming. Therefore, in comparison with most European societies, we anticipate that news coverage in the US is significantly more “domesticated. ” „Dark Areas of Ignorance‟ Revisited 2 Cross-national differences in the visibility of international news imply corresponding differences in public familiarity with international events. Although there are few systematic cross-national comparisons of public awareness of domestic versus international issues (for some evidence that Americans tend to know more about domestic issues, see Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996), what little evidence there is suggests that Americans tend to know less than Europeans about international affairs. Even at the height of the Cold War, when international events dominated the news cycle, public opinion researchers characterized US foreign policy and international relations as “dark areas of ignorance” (Kreisberg, 1949; Smith, 1970). In the post-Cold War era, notwithstanding their massive advantages in education, Americans continue to lag behind citizens of other industrialized democracies on measures of foreign affairs information. In 1994, for example, citizens of Spain, Italy, Canada, Germany, Britain, and France were generally more likely to provide correct answers to a series of questions tapping international affairs. Using the percentage of the sample unable to provide the correct answer to a single question as the indicator of public ignorance, the US trailed other nations by fifty percentage points: 37 percent of the American sample was classified as ignorant compared with an average of 19 percent for Italy, France, Britain, Germany and Canada (Kohut, Toth, & Bowman, 1994). Dimock and Popkin (1997, p. 223) attributed the significantly lower levels of international information in the US to significant cross-national differences in the “communication of knowledge” i.e. the greater prominence of public broadcasting networks in Europe that devote significant attention to international news (also see Emery, 1989). Their conjecture is supported by evidence that Europeans who report more extensive use of their „Dark Areas of Ignorance‟ Revisited 3 country‟s public television newscasts display greater levels of information about the European Union (Holtz-Bacha & Norris, 2001) than those who watch commercial channels. In sum, the available evidence supports the inference that Europeans are more familiar than Americans with international events simply because European media cover these events more extensively. The research described here was designed to test the hypothesis that cross-national differences in international affairs knowledge are attributable to differences in both the supply of international news and citizens‟ demand for information. Simultaneously, we compared the level of international affairs knowledge (using both hard news and soft news subject matter), the amount of news coverage accorded the “target” subjects in major Swiss and US news organizations, and the level of attentiveness to news among Swiss and US nationals. Our results revealed significant cross-national differences in public knowledge, the supply of hard news, and the demand for news. Swiss media provided more hard news coverage than US media, Swiss citizens reported using the news media more extensively than Americans, and the Swiss were considerably more informed than the Americans on questions of hard news. Using a multi-level model, we further demonstrate that the effects of hard news supply on hard news knowledge are stronger in Switzerland and that the greater availability of international news has the effect of reducing the knowledge gap between more and less attentive Swiss. Betweenand Within-Nation Knowledge Gaps: A Theoretical Perspective We argue that differences between Americans‟ and Europeans‟ awareness of international events can be explained by differences in their respective information environments. An informed electorate presupposes an electorate that is exposed to information. Exposure to information, in turn, depends on the nature of the media system (Hallin & Mancini, „Dark Areas of Ignorance‟ Revisited 4 2004). The American and Swiss media systems differ on multiple dimensions, most notably in the prominence of commercial, market-oriented news sources. The US represents the prototype of a “pure” market-based model (Hallin & Mancini, 2004; Sparks, 1998) in which public broadcasting is weak, and privately owned media are entirely free of state regulation. In contrast, the Swiss media system combines important elements of the “public service” and market models. Unlike the US, Switzerland has a strong public broadcaster (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation) that captures more than 40 percent of the national audience. The Swiss Constitution specifies “information and education” as the primary objectives of public broadcasting and further that programming must “promote mutual understanding and exchange between the various parties of the country, linguistic communities and cultures” (Meier, 2004). In 2005, news, public affairs and educational programs accounted for 38 percent of the programs aired on Swiss public broadcasting (Meier, 2004). 1 The two countries differ less in the organization of their print media. The major newspapers in both countries are owned by private entities and journalism embodies the norms of professional “objectivity. ” In Switzerland, the largest circulation papers include a free daily for commuters, national and regional broadsheets, and a national tabloid. In the United States, most papers (with the exception of USA Today) reach regional or local audiences. More so in the US than in Switzerland, declining circulation rates and the dominance of local television news have led publishers to emulate television in their programming; stories that “sell” take precedence over the delivery of international news (see Iyengar & McGrady, 2007). The differences between the two media systems lead us to anticipate significant crossnational differences in the level of public knowledge about international affairs. To begin with, „Dark Areas of Ignorance‟ Revisited 5 we expect that the Swiss will be more informed than Americans on questions of hard news, while Americans will have the edge on questions concerning soft news. As described below, our hypotheses seek to explain these cross-national differences in the level of information to corresponding differences in the media system‟s delivery of news and to differences in the level of consumer demand for information. The Swiss public service model assigns a higher priority to the goal of informing citizens. The strength of the Swiss public broadcaster coupled with the strong public affairs content of its programming means that the supply of hard international news will exceed the supply of soft news in Switzerland. In the US, however, the market model is driven primarily by consumer demand and news reports more frequently reference soft news. Therefore, we can state our first hypothesis as follows: H1: The effects of the supply of hard news on citizens‟ knowledge of hard news will be stronger in Switzerland than in the US. H1A: The effects of the supply of soft news on citizens‟ knowledge of soft news will be stronger in the US than Switzerland. Our second hypothesis concerns the ef