1. American Gridlock
Chapters

2. Where does political “information” come from?
Traditional Sources (Before 1980s)
1. Television (NBC, CBS, then ABC)
2. Newspapers
3. Radio
4. News Magazines (Time, Newsweek, opinion magazines)

3. Sources After 1980s to 2000s 1. Cable (explodes in 1960s and 1970s)
2. Satellite TV (After 1990)
3. Newspapers
4. Talk Radio (fairness doctrine ends 1987)
5. Magazines (starting to fade)

4. More Recent Sources
1. Cable (peaks 2000, Premium Cable (e.g., HBO, expands rapidly in 1980s and 1990s).
2. Satellite TV (HDTV by 2006 and still increasing). By % had (1) and/or (2).
3. Traditional Television (mostly older audience)
4. Newspapers (rapidly dying)
5. Magazines (basically gone)
6. The Web – Facebook, etc.
7. Cell Phone Apps (High Speed Wireless)

5. Old vs. Young People
1. Clearly, 3, 4, and 5 are rapidly fading out and only watched/read by older people. 2. Sources (1) and (2) are primarily entertainment for younger people (Game of Thrones, etc.) 3. Probably (7) > (6) is more important for younger people.

6. How well informed are Voters
1. Older people are better informed than younger people.
2. Ignorance rather than stupidity.
3. Big Problem: How do you figure out what information is true?

7. Truth (1) What is True (2) What is known to be True
(3) What People believe is True
Politicians Respond to (3) not (2)
1. Known Knowns -- Things we know we know
2. Known Unknowns -- Things we know we do not know
3. Unknown Unknowns -- Things we do not know that we do not know

8. Jacobson

9. Jacobson

10. Is “Mainstream” (“Establishment”) News Ideologically Neutral?
1. Editorials (probably not).
2. News Articles (supposed to be neutral but the topic is intensely controversial).

11. Ho, Daniel E. and Kevin M. Quinn. 2008. “Measuring
Explicit Political Positions of Media." Quarterly Journal
of Political Science. 3:

14. Jacobson

15. Jacobson

16. Jacobson

17. Jacobson

18. Jacobson

19. Jacobson

20. Jacobson

21. Jacobson

22. Jacobson – Table 6 Continued

23. Jacobson

24. Jacobson

25. Jacobson

27. Gary Jacobson

28. Gary Jacobson

29. Gary Jacobson

30. They Studied all 435 House districts in the 2010 election.
Hayes & Lawless: District Polarization and Media Coverage of U.S. House Campaigns
They Studied all 435 House districts in the 2010 election.
The greater the polarization within the district the less competitive the district is and the less newspaper coverage the election received.
Only gathered newspapers that were on-line for the study.

31. Hayes-Lawless

32. Hayes-Lawless

33. Hayes-Lawless

34. Hayes-
Lawless

35. Arceneaux and Johnson: Polarization and Partisan News Media in America
1. “Partisan news media are more likely a symptom of a polarized party system than a cause.” (cf. MPR, Chapter 3, p.97, mass polarization follows elite polarization)
2. Strong Affective Polarization. Partisans intensely dislike members of the opposite Party.
3. “Polarization at the elite and the mass levels is real.”

36. Arceneaux and Johnson (continued)
4. “Partisan polarization at the elite level began well in advance of Fox News’ debut” (see graphs by Poole & Rosenthal).
5. “News Media, including mainstream and partisan outlets, are megaphones more than motivators of partisan polarization.”

38. 2016 Presidential Election – Red Trump, Blue Clinton

39. 2016 Senate Races

40. 2016 House Races

42. Arceneaux and Johnson

43. Arceneaux and Johnson

44. Arceneaux and Johnson

45. Arceneaux and Johnson

46. Arceneaux and Johnson

47. Stroud & Curry: The Polarizing Effects of Partisan and Mainstream News
1. They focus on a single issue – The Keystone XL pipeline.
2. They use Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and NBC Nightly News as their TV News Sources.
3. Partisanship is related to attitudes on Keystone.
4. NBC alone did not have a polarizing effect.
5. Fox News and MSNBC did have a polarizing effect.

48. Stroud and Curry

49. Stroud and Curry

50. Stroud and Curry

51. Stroud and Curry