Weaving It In: How Political Radio Reacts to Events

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

How do ideologically slanted media outlets react to politically relevant events? Previous research suggests that partisan media trumpet ideologically congenial events, such as opposing-party scandals, while ignoring bad news for their own side. Looking at reactions to newsworthy events on political radio-an often-partisan medium that reaches more Americans than Twitter-I find a different pattern. Based on recordings of hundreds of shows totaling two million broadcast hours, I demonstrate that regardless of their ideological leanings, political shows respond to events by dramatically increasing the attention they give to related policy issues. At the same time, liberal and conservative shows continue to frame those issues in very different ways. Instead of ignoring inconvenient events, partisan media "weave them in," interpreting them in ways consistent with their ideological leanings. These media dynamics imply that nationally significant events can cause opinion polarization rather than convergence-becoming a divisive rather than a shared experience.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPublic Opinion Quarterly
Volume87
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)120-141
Number of pages22
ISSN0033-362X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

    Research areas

  • TALK RADIO, ISSUE OWNERSHIP, PUBLIC-OPINION, PARTISAN BIAS, MEDIA BIAS, NEWS, COVERAGE, POLARIZATION, CABLE, CLIMATE

ID: 342672065