Fight Clubs

Media Coverage of Party (Dis)unity and Citizens’ Selective Exposure to It

Bibliographic Data

ID7972076
AuthorsJohn V Kane (0000-0002-6720-8071, New York University, New York City, USA, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume73
Issue2
Pages276-292
Publication date2020-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Research Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1065-9129 • E-ISSN: 1938-274X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1065912919827106
OpenAlexW4240578943
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited47

News media play a key role in communicating information about political parties to the American public. However, our understanding of how media depict relations between elites and the broader party coalitions remains limited. Moreover, while research suggests that forced exposure to such information can affect political attitudes, it remains unclear whether citizens are willing to selectively expose themselves to such communications. To address these two interrelated questions, this study first employs a content analysis to explore patterns in news coverage of inter- and intra-party relations throughout the Obama presidency. Next, two survey experiments investigate the degree to which such relations affect citizens’ self-exposure to such information. Taken together, the analyses uncover two important asymmetries. First, throughout Obama’s presidency, mass media depicted a Republican coalition virtually always against the president, yet substantial discord within the Democratic Party. Second, though partisans show no propensity to consume news depicting inparty unity (vs. disunity), both Republicans and Democrats exhibit a strong tendency to consume news stories depicting disunity in the outparty. Insofar as partisans’ self-exposure to such information is a necessary precondition for attitudinal and behavioral change, these findings have notable implications for how mass media stand to shape partisanship in the United States

Affect (linguistics · Democracy · Mass media · News media · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Politics of the United States · Presidency · Public opinion · Public relations · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Social Media and Politics

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub