Working Paper: NBER ID: w20798
Authors: Gregory J. Martin; Ali Yurukoglu
Abstract: We measure the persuasive effects of slanted news and tastes for like-minded news, exploiting cable channel positions as exogenous shifters of cable news viewership. Channel positions do not correlate with demographics that predict viewership and voting, nor with local satellite viewership. We estimate that Fox News increases Republican vote shares by 0.3 points among viewers induced into watching 2.5 additional minutes per week by variation in position. We then estimate a model of voters who select into watching slanted news, and whose ideologies evolve as a result. We quantitatively assess media-driven polarization, and simulate alternative ideological slanting of news channels.
Keywords: cable news; persuasion; polarization; media bias
JEL Codes: D72; D83; L82
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Eliminating Fox News from cable during the 2000 election cycle (D72) | Republican vote share (D72) |
| Slanted news consumption (D10) | Viewer ideologies (Y10) |
| Taste for likeminded news (Y60) | Viewer ideologies (Y10) |
| Viewer ideologies (Y10) | Slanted news consumption (D10) |
| Channel positions (Y90) | Viewership (L82) |
| Watching Fox News for additional 25 minutes per week (J29) | Republican vote shares (D72) |
| Watching MSNBC for additional 25 minutes per week (J29) | Republican vote shares (D72) |
| Viewership (L82) | Republican vote shares (D72) |