Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 11
List of Tables......Page 13
List of Figures......Page 15
Acknowledgments......Page 17
1 Introduction......Page 21
By-product Learning......Page 24
The Floating Voter......Page 26
The media environment, 1920–2005......Page 29
Stability and change......Page 35
Individual-level versus contextual explanations......Page 39
No technological determinism......Page 42
The relevance of media content preferences for politics......Page 45
2 Conditional Political Learning......Page 47
Political Knowledge and the OMA Framework......Page 48
Different Types of Learning: Motivated and Accidental......Page 50
The Media Environment as a Condition for Learning......Page 51
The low-choice/high-choice experiment......Page 54
Models of Program Choice......Page 57
The Switchers......Page 61
Did Switchers Learn?......Page 64
Seven hypotheses......Page 67
Conclusion......Page 71
Part 1: The Participatory Effects of Media Choice......Page 73
3 Broadcast Television, Political Knowledge, and Turnout......Page 75
Before Television......Page 76
From Radio to Television: Fast and Slow......Page 79
Television News......Page 82
Television’s Dominance and the Limits of Choice......Page 86
The Captive News Audience......Page 90
Who Benefits from Television News?......Page 92
The impact of television access on learning about politics......Page 94
The impact of television access on turnout......Page 104
Conclusion......Page 108
Appendix to Chapter 3: Measuring Political Knowledge, NES 1952–1968......Page 112
4 From Low Choice to High Choice:The Impact of Cable Television and Internet on News Exposure, Political Knowledge, and Turnout......Page 114
Cable television and the network news audience......Page 118
Measuring preference for entertainment......Page 122
Relative entertainment preference and self-reported exposure to news......Page 127
The internet and media choice......Page 131
Relative entertainment preference and political knowledge......Page 133
Relative entertainment preference and turnout......Page 140
Replicating results for different contexts: nes and pew......Page 143
The demographic profiles of news junkies and entertainment fans......Page 151
Conclusion......Page 154
Current Events Knowledge......Page 158
Current Events Knowledge......Page 159
Political Knowledge (Fourteen-Item Index)......Page 160
Political Knowledge (Fourteen-Item Index)......Page 161
5 From Low Choice to High Choice: Does Greater Media Choice Affect Total News Consumption and Average Turnout?......Page 162
Did cable television affect average turnout levels?......Page 163
Greater media choice and total news consumption......Page 169
A question of concentration: how many news junkies are there?......Page 175
Conclusion......Page 179
Part 2: The Political Effects of Media Choice......Page 181
6 Broadcast Television, Partisanship, and the Incumbency Advantage......Page 183
Broadcast television, education, and partisan voting behavior......Page 184
Did Television Reduce the Impact of Partisanship in Elections?......Page 186
Broadcast Television and the Flow of Political Information......Page 191
Learning about congressional elections in the low-choice media environment......Page 192
Local News......Page 193
The Symbiosis of Local Television Stations and House Incumbents......Page 194
Broadcast television and the incumbency advantage in congressional elections......Page 200
Congressional Campaigns on Television......Page 207
The Effect of Television on Voting Behavior......Page 210
The Television Effect at the District Level......Page 216
The Effect of District Size......Page 224
The Effect of District-Market Congruence......Page 225
Conclusion......Page 228
7 Partisan Polarization in the High-Choice Media Environment......Page 234
Polarization in Congress......Page 236
Polarization among Voters......Page 237
Polarization in the Electorate?......Page 241
Entertainment preference and partisanship......Page 246
The role of media choice: allowing moderates to escape......Page 252
The effect of rising cable penetration on partisan polarization......Page 259
Conclusion......Page 264
Appendix to Chapter 7: Using a Selection Model to Simulate Partisan Vote Strength in the Full Electorate......Page 269
8 Divided by Choice: Audience Fragmentation and Political Inequality in the Post-Broadcast Media Environment......Page 275
Key findings: media environments and political behavior......Page 276
Qualifications, future research, and the limits of the conditional political learning model......Page 278
Media environments and the interpretation of political trends......Page 282
The voluntary origins of political inequality......Page 285
Audience fragmentation......Page 291
News and entertainment: contrast or blur?......Page 295
Promoting political equality in a high-choice media environment......Page 301
References......Page 309
Index......Page 329