Images of citizenship on television news: constructing a passive public

Abstract

Based on the largest content analysis of its kind, this article analyses the ways in which public opinion and citizenship is referenced or invoked on television news in the United States and Britain. The study is discussed in the context of the debate about declining citizen participation in representative politics. One of the study's main findings is that citizenship and public opinion are generally represented as passive, rather than engaged. This suggests that showing an engaged citizenry conflicts with current journalistic practices, and that any attempt to encourage more engagement will require rethinking those conventions.