University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Public Relations Assistant Professor Jay Hmielowski is the co-author of “Laugh, But Don’t Seek: A Reassessment of the Gateway Hypothesis” published in the International Journal of Communication, Vol. 15, 2021.

Hmielowski and Michaele Myers examined the gateway hypothesis which argues that political satire programs open the door to people using more hard news content. Their study included analyzing whether the use of satire leads people to use more cable news.

According to the authors, “Although our cross-sectional analyses replicate previous results attempting to assess the gateway hypothesis, our over-time data suggest that satire does not lead to increased use of news programming on cable outlets. However, we did find support for the gateway hypothesis when looking at a mediation model where political attitudes serve as the intervening variable between satire use and cable news use.”

Posted: October 20, 2021
Category: College News, Trust News
Tagged as: Jay Hmielowski