The influence of talk radio on political efficacy and participation

Talk radio has emerged as a major political force in the past few years, but there is little systematic evidence on how talk shows may affect listeners. The author uses national survey data to investigate how talk radio exposure may influence two important aspects of a healthy democracy: political efficacy and participation. The author concludes that talk radio is unrelated to self-efficacy, the belief of one's own competence to deal with public affairs. However, attention to talk radio leads to less system efficacy, the belief in the responsiveness of government institutions and officials. Finally, exposure is found to be strongly related to participating in a number of conventional political activities.