Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T00:30:16.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Media's Influence on LGBTQ Support Across Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2019

Stephen Winkler Open the ORCID record for Stephen Winkler [Opens in a new window]
Stephen Winkler*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: winklers@uw.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Political leaders across Africa frequently accuse the media of promoting homosexuality, while activists often use the media to promote pro-LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) narratives. Despite extensive research on how the media affects public opinion, including studies that show how exposure to certain information can increase support of LGBTQs, there is virtually no research on how the media influences attitudes towards LGBTQs across Africa. This study develops a theory that accounts for actors' mixed approach to the media and shows how different types of media create distinct effects on public opinion of LGBTQs. Specifically, the study finds that radio and television have no, or a negative, significant effect on pro-gay attitudes, whereas individuals who consume more newspapers, internet or social media are significantly more likely to support LGBTQs (by approximately 2 to 4 per cent). The author argues that these differential effects are conditional on censorship of queer representation from certain mediums. The analysis confirms that the results are not driven by selection effects, and that the relationship is unique to LGBTQ support but not other social attitudes. The results have important implications, especially given the growing politicization of same-sex relations and changing media consumption habits across Africa.

Keywords

LGBTQgaypolitical behaviorAfricapublic opinionmediacensorshipcommunications
Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 807 - 826
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, E (1992) The emergence of cooperation: national epistemic communities and the international evolution of the idea of nuclear arms control. International Organization 46(01), 101–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asal, V, Sommer, U and Harwood, PG (2013) Original sin: a cross-national study of the legality of homosexual acts. Comparative Political Studies 46(3), 320–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Askitas, N and Zimmermann, KF (2009) Google econometrics and unemployment forecasting. Applied Economics Quarterly 55(2), 107–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Awondo, P, Geschiere, P and Reid, G (2012) Homophobic Africa? Toward a more nuanced view. African Studies Review 55(3), 145–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayoub, P (2016) When States Come Out: Europe's Sexual Minorities and the Politics of Visibility. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayoub, PM and Garretson, J (2016) Getting the message out: media context and global changes in attitudes toward homosexuality. Comparative Political Studies 50(8), 1055–1085.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballatore, A, Graham, M and Sen, S (2017) Digital hegemonies: the localness of search engine results. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 107(5), 1194–1215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barberá, P et al. (2015) Tweeting from left to right: is online political communication more than an echo chamber? Psychological Science 26(10), 1531–1542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baumgartner, FR (2008) The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Benton, A (2015) HIV Exceptionalism: Development Through Disease in Sierra Leone, 3 edn. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Brewer, PR (2003) The shifting foundations of public opinion about gay rights. The Journal of Politics 65(4), 1208–1220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broockman, D and Kallah, J (2016) Durably reducing transphobia: a field experiment on door-to-door canvassing. Science 352(6282), 220–224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chutel, L (2016) Nigerians hate Caitlyn Jenner's transgender reality show so much they got it banned throughout Africa. Available from https://qz.com/694080/nigerians-hate-caitlyn-jenners-transgender-reality-show-so-much-they-got-it-banned-throughout-africa/.Google Scholar
Cottle, S (2011) Media and the Arab uprisings of 2011: research notes. Journalism 12(5), 647–659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahir, AL (2017) Some Nickelodeon kid cartoons have been banned in Kenya for ‘glorifying homosexuality’. Available from https://qz.com/1008157/some-nickelodeon-kid-cartoons-have-been-banned-in-kenya-for-glorifying-homosexuality/.Google Scholar
Dionne, KY (2017) Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDS in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dionne, KY, Dulani, B and Chunga, J (2014) Research note: Attitudes toward homosexuality in sub-Saharan Africa, 1982–2012. Available from https://sophia.smith.edu/~kdionne/attitudes_toward_homosexuality_africa.pdf.Google Scholar
Dreher, A (2006) Does globalization affect growth? Evidence from a new index of globalization. Applied Economics 38(10), 1091–1110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreier, SK (2018) Resisting rights to renounce imperialism: East African churches’ strategic symbolic resistance to LGBTQ inclusion. International Studies Quarterly 62(2), 423–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dulani, B, Sambo, G and Yi Dionne, K (2016) Good neighbours? Africans express high levels of tolerance for many, but not all. Afrobarometer Dispatch 74. Available from https://afrobarometer.org/publications/tolerance-in-africa.Google Scholar
Enos, R (2017) The Space Between Us: Social Geography and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enos, RD (2014) Causal effect of intergroup contact on exclusionary attitudes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(10), 3699–3704.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Epprecht, M (2013) The making of “African sexuality”: early sources, current debates. In Epprecht, M and Nyeck, SN (eds), Sexual Diversity in Africa: Politics, Theory, Citizenship. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, pp. 54–66.Google Scholar
Farrell, H (2012) The consequences of internet for politics. Annual Review of Political Science 15(1), 25–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fazekas, Z and Larsen, EG (2016) Media content and political behavior in observational research: a critical assessment. British Journal of Political Science 46(1), 195–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferraz, C and Finan, F (2008) Exposing corrupt politicians: the effects of Brazil's publicly released audits on electoral outcomes. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(2), 703–745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnemore, M and Sikkink, K (1998) International norm dynamics and political change. International Organization 52(4), 887–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flaxman, S, Goel, S and Rao, JM (2016) Filter bubbles, echo chambers, and online news consumption. Public Opinion Quarterly 80(S1), 298–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, AR (2015) Attitudes toward transgender rights: perceived knowledge and secondary interpersonal contact. Politics, Groups, and Identities 3(3), 398–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, AR et al. (2017) Challenged expectations: mere exposure effects on attitudes about transgender people and rights. Political Psychology. doi.org/10.1111/pops.12402Google Scholar
Forbes, HD (1997) Ethnic Conflict: Commerce, Culture, and the Contact Hypothesis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Garretson, JJ (2015) Exposure to the lives of lesbians and gays and the origin of young people's greater support for gay rights. International Journal of Public Opinion Research 27(2), 277–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelman, A and Hill, J (2007) Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gentzkow, MA and Shapiro, JM (2010) Ideological Segregation Online and Offline. Working Paper 15916. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, M (2001) Political ignorance and collective policy preferences. American Political Science Review 95(2), 379–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsberg, J et al. (2008) Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data. Nature 457(7232), 1012–1014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Google (2017) Google Search Trends. Available from http://www.google.com/trends.Google Scholar
Gross, LP (2001) Up From Invisibility: Lesbians, gay men, and the media in America. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Grossman, G (2015) Renewalist Christianity and the political saliency of LGBTs: theory and evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. The Journal of Politics 77(2), 337–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gygli, S, Haelg, F and Sturm, J-E (2018) The KOF Globalisation Index – Revisited. Working Paper. Zurich: KOF Swiss Economic Institute.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into A Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Habyarimana, J et al. (2007) Why does ethnic diversity undermine public goods provision? American Political Science Review 101(4), 709–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herek, GM and Capitanio, JP (1996) ‘Some of my best friends’ intergroup contact, concealable stigma, and heterosexuals’ attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 22(4), 412–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbs, WR and Roberts, ME (2018) How sudden censorship can increase access to information. American Political Science Review 113(3), 1–16.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch (2018) Audacity in Adversity: LGBT Activism in the Middle East and North Africa. New York: HRW. Available from https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/lgbt_mena0418_web_0.pdf.Google Scholar
Huntington, SP (1991) The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Ireland, PR (2013) A macro-level analysis of the scope, causes, and consequences of homophobia in Africa. African Studies Review 56(2), 47–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, S and Kinder, DR (1987) News That Matters: Television and American Opinion. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jennings, MK and Zeitner, V (2003) Internet use and civic engagement: a longitudinal analysis. Public Opinion Quarterly 67(3), 311–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, PE et al. (2018) Explaining public opinion toward transgender people, rights, and candidates. Public Opinion Quarterly 82(2), 252–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasara, K (2013) Separate and suspicious: local social and political context and ethnic tolerance in Kenya. The Journal of Politics 75(4), 921–936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keck, ME and Sikkink, K (1998) Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
King, G, Pan, J and Roberts, ME (2013) How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression. American Political Science Review 107(2), 326–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, G, Pan, J and Roberts, ME (2017) How the Chinese government fabricates social media posts for strategic distraction, not engaged argument. American Political Science Review 111(3), 484–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kittilson, MC and Dalton, RJ (2011) Virtual civil society: the new frontier of social capital? Political Behavior 33(4), 625–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kollman, K (2007) Same-sex unions: the globalization of an idea. International Studies Quarterly 51(2), 329–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroh, M and Neiss, H (2009) Internet Access and Political Engagement: Self-Selection or Causal Effect? SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 1451368. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network.Google Scholar
Kuklinski, JH et al. (2000) Misinformation and the currency of democratic citizenship. The Journal of Politics 62(3), 790–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leeper, TJ, Arnold, J and Arel-Bundock, V (2018) Marginal Effects for Model Objects.Google Scholar
Lewis, DC et al. (2017) Degrees of acceptance: variation in public attitudes toward segments of the LGBT community. Political Research Quarterly.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, GB (2011) The friends and family plan: contact with gays and support for gay rights. Policy Studies Journal 39(2), 217–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, ES (2009) Boundaries of Contagion: How Ethnic Politics Have Shaped Government Responses to AIDS. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, M, Metzler, R and Bar-Yam, Y (2007) Global pattern formation and ethnic/cultural violence. Science 317(5844), 1540–1544.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linz, JJ and Stepan, AC (1996) Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, P (2014) China's strategic censorship. American Journal of Political Science 58(2), 402–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupia, A and McCubbins, MD (1998) The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lupia, A and Philpot, TS (2005) Views from inside the net: how websites affect young adults’ political interest. Journal of Politics 67(4), 1122–1142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lusimbo, R and Oguaghamba, A (2017) Pan Africa ILGA Annual Report 2016–2017. Available from http://panafricailga.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/PAI_Annual-Report_2017.pdf.Google Scholar
Lynch, DC (1999) After the Propaganda State: Media, Politics, and “Thought Work” in Reformed China. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Manin, B, Stein, E and Mansbridge, J (1987) On legitimacy and political deliberation. Political Theory 15(3), 338–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, GE, Neuman, RW and MacKuen, M (2000) Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Matfess, H (2016) More African countries are blocking internet access during elections. Available from https://qz.com/696552/more-african-countries-are-blocking-internet-access-during-elections/.Google Scholar
McCombs, ME and Shaw, DL (1972) The agenda-setting function of mass media. The Public Opinion Quarterly 36(2), 176–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellon, J (2013) Where and when can we use google trends to measure issue salience? PS: Political Science & Politics 46(2), 280–290.Google Scholar
Miguel, E and Gugerty, MK (2005) Ethnic diversity, social sanctions, and public goods in Kenya. Journal of Public Economics 89(11), 2325–2368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutz, DC (2002) Cross-cutting social networks: testing democratic theory in practice. American Political Science Review 96(01), 111–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, P and Inglehart, R (2009) Cosmopolitan Communications: Cultural Diversity in A Globalized World. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyhan, B and Reifler, J (2010) When corrections fail: the persistence of political misperceptions. Political Behavior 32(2), 303–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Persily, N (2017) The 2016 US election: can democracy survive the internet? Journal of Democracy 28(2), 63–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, TF and Tropp, LR (2006) A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 90(5), 751–783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, GS and Atuhaire, G (2016) How Ugandans overturned an election day social media blackout. Available from https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nz7zv8/uganda-election-day-social-media-blackout-backlash-mobile-payments.Google Scholar
Prior, M (2007) Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raymond, CD (2016) Not all social cleavages are the same: on the relationship between religious diversity and party system fragmentation. Politics and Religion 9(2), 364–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ripberger, JT (2011) Capturing curiosity: using internet search trends to measure public attentiveness. Policy Studies Journal 39(2), 239–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, M (2018) Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China's Great Firewall. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Robertson, G (2017) Political orientation, information and perceptions of election fraud: evidence from Russia. British Journal of Political Science 47(3), 589–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scacco, A and Warren, SS (2018) Can social contact reduce prejudice and discrimination? Evidence from a field experiment in Nigeria. American Political Science Review 112(3), 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiappa, E, Gregg, PB and Hewes, DE (2005) The parasocial contact hypothesis. Communication Monographs 72(1), 92–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiappa, E, Gregg, P and Hewes, DE (2006) Can one TV show make a difference? Will & Grace and the parasocial contact hypothesis. Journal of Homosexuality 51(4), 15–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shehata, A and Strömbäck, J (2018) Learning political news from social media: network Media logic and current affairs news learning in a high-choice media environment. Communication Research. doi.org/10.1177/0093650217749354.Google Scholar
Smith, BA et al. (2017) Gay or homosexual? The implications of social category labels for the structure of mass attitudes. American Politics Research. doi.org/10.1177/1532673X17706560.Google ScholarPubMed
Sunstein, CR (2001) Republic.com. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Swigger, N (2013) The online citizen: is social media changing citizens’ beliefs about democratic values? Political Behavior 35(3), 589–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taber, CS and Lodge, M (2006) Motivated skepticism in the evaluation of political beliefs. American Journal of Political Science 50(3), 755–769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tadlock, BL et al. (2017) Testing contact theory and attitudes on transgender rights. Public Opinion Quarterly 81(4), 956–972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamale, S (2007) Out of the closet: unveiling sexuality discourses in Uganda. In Cole, CM, Manuh, T and Miescher, SF (eds), Africa After Gender? Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 17–29.Google Scholar
Vourlias, C (2014) Kenya bans film about its LGBT community. Available from http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/10/11/kenya-lgbt-film-banned.html.Google Scholar
Winkler, S (2019) Replication data for: Media's influence on LGBTQ support across Africa. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/UWMHET, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:sKLfzwDO3+amg2bR9g1SzA== [fileUNF].Google Scholar
Wooldridge, JM (2010) Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data, 2nd edn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Winkler supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Winkler supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 686.7 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Winkler Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/UWMHET
Link