Just the Facts? Partisan Media and the Political Conditioning of Economic Perceptions

• Author: Ian G. Anson
• Date: 01 September 2016
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912916648016
• Published date: 01 September 2016
• Subject Matter: Articles

Political Research Quarterly

2016, Vol. 69(3) 444 –456

© 2016 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912916648016

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Article

In recent years, scholars of economic voting have turned

their attention to the question of partisan bias in economic

retrospections (e.g., Bartels 2002; Evans and Andersen

2006; Evans and Pickup 2010; Gerber and Huber 2010;

Tilley and Hobolt 2011).1 A growing body of evidence

points to the notion that party identification is a strong

causal driver of citizens’ economic perceptions (and

hence, their economic voting behavior), though the

mechanism supporting this link is currently the subject of

scholarly debate. Among the possible explanations, stud-

ies have recalled an earlier literature that shows how citi-

zens’ sociotropic economic perceptions are shaped by

their exposure to media narratives (e.g., MacKuen,

Erikson, and Stimson 1992; Mutz 1992; Soroka 2006).

These findings have reinforced the idea that media por-

trayals of the American economy are a critical subsidy of

information used by citizens across the political spectrum

to engage in performance voting.

Media effects on economic evaluations have evolved

in tandem with the development of a fragmented, partisan

media environment. Since the mid-1990s, scholars have

documented the rise of niche ideological media, in part

due to technological innovations such as the growth of

cable availability (e.g., Hume 1996; Prior 2007; Stroud

2011). This partisan twenty-four–hour news cycle, in

which a panoply of ideological voices has joined the ever-

widening array of media outlets available to citizens,

appears to be affecting the degree of partisan bias in

citizens’ economic evaluations (Larcinese, Puglisi, and

Snyder 2011). In this study, I seek to analyze the effects of

different types of bias in the presentation of economic

news on citizens’ perceptions. I argue that instead of overt

partisan cues that attribute responsibility to partisan actors

for economic developments, the most influential form of

bias in economic news is the presentation of congenial

(also known as proattitudinal) economic information.

This bias is achieved through selective presentation of

economic indicators: news outlets will frequently present

facts that most accord with a partisan interpretation of

economic reality, devoid of any overt partisan cues or

politically charged language. When the incumbent presi-

dential administration shares its party identification with

the network’s preferred party, economic indicators show-

ing negative trends are less likely to be discussed. When

the incumbent is a member of the opposing party, the

same indicators are discussed more frequently. This type

of bias can be contrasted with a more overt partisan style,

in which commentators explicitly link positive or negative

economic developments to partisan actors using party

cues. These partisan attributions of responsibility for eco-

nomic developments provide a slanted interpretation of

648016PRQXXX10.1177/1065912916648016Political Research QuarterlyAnson

research-article2016

1University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA

Corresponding Author:

Ian G. Anson, Department of Political Science, University of Maryland,

Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Cir., 305 PUP, Baltimore,

MD 21250, USA.

Email: iganson@umbc.edu

Just the Facts? Partisan Media and the

Political Conditioning of Economic

Perceptions

Ian G. Anson1

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of biases in economic information on partisans’ economic perceptions. In survey

experiments, I manipulate the presence of partisan cues and the direction of proattitudinal information in news stories

about the American economy. Results demonstrate that although proattitudinal tone in factual economic news stories

most strongly affects partisans’ economic perceptions, inclusion of partisan cues alongside proattitudinal information

results in weaker shifts in economic sentiment relative to stories lacking partisan content. These findings suggest that

the relatively subtle process of agenda setting in economic news may be the most effective tool used by partisan news

outlets to drive polarization in citizens’ factual economic perceptions.

Keywords

economic voting, media bias, agenda setting, motivated reasoning