Did Television Reduce the Effect of Partisan Press on Electoral Politics?

• Published date: 01 January 2020
• Date: 01 January 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X18786722
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X18786722

American Politics Research

2020, Vol. 48(1) 78 –98

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X18786722

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Article

Did Television Reduce

the Effect of Partisan

Press on Electoral

Politics?

B. K. Song1

Abstract

In this study, I examine whether the effect of biased media can be reduced

when voters have an alternative source of political information. Specifically,

I investigate whether the introduction of television mitigated the effect

of partisan press on U.S. presidential elections from 1944 to 1964. I first

show that newspaper coverage of presidential campaigns during this period

was affected by newspapers’ party affiliations and their readers’ political

preferences. The main finding of this study is that television decreased the

correlation between the circulation of partisan newspapers and parties’ vote

share. The results suggest that the existence of centrist media can make

voters less susceptible to partisan media.

Keywords

television, local newspaper, media bias

Introduction

The political bias of media has become a major topic in the growing body of

literature on the political economy of media.1 Political scientists and econo-

mists have discussed why media bias exists (e.g., Anderson & McLaren, 2012;

Baron, 2006; Duggan & Martinelli, 2011; Gentzkow, 2006; Mullainathan &

1Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea

Corresponding Author:

B. K. Song, Assistant Professor, Department of Policy Studies, Hanyang University, 222

Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, South Korea.

Email: bksong@hanyang.ac.kr

786722APRXXX10.1177/1532673X18786722American Politics ResearchSong

research-article2018

Song 79

Shleifer, 2005) and have empirically documented the degree of bias using

various measures (e.g., Ansolabehere, Lessem, & Snyder, 2006; Gentzkow &

Shapiro, 2010; Groseclose & Milyo, 2005; Ho & Quinn, 2008; Larcinese,

Puglisi, & Snyder, 2011; Puglisi & Snyder, 2011). Given the prevalence of

media bias, what is its effect on voters? Although early studies of political

communications have found little evidence of persuasion by media (e.g.,

Berelson, Lazarsfeld, & McPhee, 1954; Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet,

1948), more recent studies do find an effect of partisan media on voters’

choices (e.g., Chiang & Knight, 2011; de Leon, 2013; DellaVigna & Kaplan,

2007; Erikson, 1976; Ladd & Lenz, 2009).2 Partisan media can be detrimental

to voters, especially when they suppress information to promote their political

agenda (e.g., Puglisi & Snyder, 2011). The formal model in Bernhardt, Krasa,

and Polborn (2008) discusses how media bias can cause a failure of informa-

tion aggregation and lead voters to choose a candidate whom they would not

have chosen had they received unbiased news.

In this study, I examine whether the effect of biased media can be reduced

when voters have an alternative source of political information. Specifically,

I investigate whether the introduction of television decreased the effect of

partisan press on the U.S. presidential elections from 1944 to 1964.

In the pre-broadcasting era, most people in the United States received

political information from local newspapers. Since media markets were

localized, newspapers often tailored their news stories to satisfy their readers’

political preferences. I show that newspaper coverage of presidential cam-

paigns during the study period was affected by newspapers’ party affiliations

and their readers’ political preferences. In contrast, television stations were

politically independent owing to government regulations on broadcasting. I

present evidence suggesting that the television coverage of presidential can-

didates was not affected by television viewers’ political preferences.

The main finding of this study is that television reduced the effect of par-

tisan newspapers during the study period. I find that television decreased the

correlation between the circulation of partisan newspapers and the parties’

vote share. Next, I explore alternative mechanisms that may explain the

results. First, I examine the possibility that the results are driven by the

crowding out of political information (e.g., Gentzkow, 2006). If people sub-

stituted television for local newspapers, the effects of the partisan press may

have decreased, because newspaper readership fell when television entered

local media markets. Second, television may have entered areas that were

already becoming less partisan. I find little support for these alternative

hypotheses. Taken together, these results suggest that when television became

available, voters were less likely to be affected by the political bias of news-

papers because they had a new source of political information.