Media Influence and Spatial Voting: The Role of Perceived Party Positions
Overview
Paper Summary
This quasi-experiment investigated the long-term effects of reduced exposure to right-wing media using the Liverpool boycott of The Sun newspaper. Lower working class residents in Liverpool, who were the most affected by the boycott, were more likely to perceive the Labour party as moderate, adopt left-leaning positions on union power, and vote for the Labour party compared to similar groups in other parts of Northern England who continued reading The Sun.
Explain Like I'm Five
A study used a newspaper boycott in Liverpool to see how media affects voting. It found that people exposed to less right-wing media were more likely to see the Labour party as moderate, become more left-wing, and support Labour.
Possible Conflicts of Interest
None identified.
Identified Limitations
Rating Explanation
This study uses a strong quasi-experimental design to analyze the complex relationship between media and voting. The use of the Liverpool Sun boycott provides a unique opportunity to address endogeneity concerns that plague observational studies on media effects. The study finds significant and substantively important effects of media exposure on perceived party positions, ideological positions, and voting behavior, thus contributing valuable insights to our understanding of media influence. Although formal mediation analysis was limited due to data constraints, the results suggest a potentially powerful mediating role of perceived party positions. Some limitations include the restricted geographic scope of the treatment, the reliance on survey data, and the inability to fully test mediation.
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