The Media and the Foundations of Presidential Support: George Bush and the Persian Gulf Conflict

When the United States began its overt military conflict with Iraq in January 1991, the American news media focused attention powerfully and seemingly unceasingly on the Gulf crisis for a period of almost three months. Through analysis of data collected in a panel survey conducted before and after the war, we found that paralleling this surge in media coverage were significant alterations in the ingredients of Americans' assessments of George Bush's job performance. After the war, these assessments were based much more on citizens' beliefs about his effectiveness in managing the conflict, and much less on their confidence in his handling of other foreign relations matters or the domestic economy. We found as well that these shifts were regulated by citizens' levels of political knowledge, exposure to political news, and interest in the war. Greater shifts were associated with higher levels of knowledge and lower levels of exposure and interest. These findings challenge traditional views of these dimensions of political involvement and support an alternative view derived from contemporary psychological theories of information processing.