After All This Time? The Impact of Media and Authoritarian History on Political News Coverage in Twelve Western Countries

Leeuw, Sjifra de; Azrout, Rachid; Rekker, Roderik; Spanje, J.H.P. van

doi:10.1093/joc/jqaa029

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This is in line with earlier findings on the dominance of English corpora in textual research (Pang & Lee, 2008). However, other languages were assessed as well, either as part of multilingual projects (e.g., de Leeuw et al, 2020;Maier et al, 2022) or in single-language studies usually focusing on a specific country or region (Bustikova et al, 2020;El-Masri et al, 2021;Yang & Fang, 2021).…”

Section: Systematic Reviewsupporting

confidence: 85%

The search for solid ground in text as data: A systematic review and practical recommendations for validation

Birkenmaier¹,

Lechner²,

Wagner³

2023

Preprint

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Nowadays, text-based methods are widely applied to detect and measure a wide range of social science constructs, such as emotions or political attitudes. However, the validity of text-based measures can be difficult to assess. This is because text data is typically unstructured, complex, and noisy. Additionally, practical and conceptual guidance on how to validate text-based measures is scarce and inconsistent. But what are the consequences of this reality for applied research? Our work aims to answer this research question by providing a fundament for the systematic engagement with validity for text-based research in the social sciences. Based on a systematic review and qualitative expert interviews, we describe and identify differences and common themes in validation practices. Our results show that scholars applied a great variety of validation steps, which, however, were rarely selected on a conceptual understanding of validity. These findings are also supported by our qualitative results as we recorded considerable confusion about what actions ultimately represent valid validation steps and uncertainty on how these steps should then be reported. Overall, we call for more systematic efforts to develop a commonly shared language of validation practices to effectively document and evaluate validation steps for text as data methods.

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Section: Systematic Reviewsupporting

confidence: 85%

The search for solid ground in text as data: A systematic review and practical recommendations for validation

Birkenmaier¹,

Lechner²,

Wagner³

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This would happen because partisan media, by definition, favor one side (Baum and Groeling 2008), while covering the opposition in a negative light (Jamieson and Cappella 2008;Pew Oct. 2017), focusing on its scandals or wrongdoings (Puglisi and Snyder 2011). Relatedly, partisan news often contains incivility, such as ad hominem attacks or references to the opposition as Nazis or Communists (Berry and Sobieraj 2013;de Leeuw et al 2020), and features "in your face" debates, which lead the audience to see the opposition as not legitimate (Mutz 2007).…”

Section: (Partisan) News Media and Polarizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

No Polarization From Partisan News: Over-Time Evidence From Trace Data

Wojcieszak

Leeuw

Menchen-Trevino

et al. 2021

The International Journal of Press/Politics

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Many blame partisan news media for polarization in America. This paper examines the effects of liberal, conservative, and centrist news on affective and attitude polarization. To this end, we rely on two studies that combine two-wave panel surveys (N1 = 303, N2 = 904) with twelve months worth of web browsing data submitted by the same participants comprising roughly thirty-eight million visits. We identify news exposure using an extensive list of news domains and develop a machine learning classifier to identify exposure to political news within these domains. The results offer a robust pattern of null findings. Exposure to partisan and centrist news websites—no matter if it is congenial or crosscutting—does not enhance polarization. These null effects also emerge among strong and weak partisans as well as Democrats and Republicans alike. We argue that these null results accurately portray the reality of limited effects of news in the “real world.” Politics and partisan news account for a small fraction of citizens’ online activities, less than 2 percent in our trace data, and are nearly unnoticeable in the overall information and communication ecology of most individuals.

show abstract

“…This would happen because partisan media, by definition, favor one side (Baum and Groeling 2008), while covering the opposition in a negative light (Jamieson and Cappella 2008;Pew Oct. 2017), focusing on its scandals or wrongdoings (Puglisi and Snyder 2011). Relatedly, partisan news often contains incivility, such as ad hominem attacks or references to the opposition as Nazis or Communists (Berry and Sobieraj 2014;de Leeuw et al 2020), and features "in your face" debates, which lead the audience to see the opposition as not legitimate (Mutz 2007).…”

Section: (Partisan) News Media and Polarizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wojcieszak et al No Polarization from Partisan News IJPP Forthcoming

Wojcieszak¹,

Leeuw²,

Menchen-Trevino³

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many blame partisan news media for polarization in America. This paper examines the effects of liberal, conservative, and centrist news on affective and attitude polarization. To this end, we rely on two studies that combine two-wave panel surveys (N1 = 303, N2 = 904) with 12 months worth of web browsing data submitted by the same participants comprising roughly 38 million visits. We identify news exposure using an extensive list of news domains and develop a machine learning classifier to identify exposure to political news within these domains. The results offer a robust pattern of null findings. Exposure to partisan and centrist news websites – no matter if it is congenial or cross-cutting – does not enhance polarization. These null effects also emerge among strong and weak partisans as well as Democrats and Republicans alike. We argue that these null results accurately portray the reality of limited effects of news in the “real world.” Politics and partisan news account for a small fraction of citizens’ online activities, less than 2% in our trace data, and are nearly unnoticeable in the overall information and communication ecology of most individuals.

show abstract

After All This Time? The Impact of Media and Authoritarian History on Political News Coverage in Twelve Western Countries

Cited by 11 publications

References 29 publications

The search for solid ground in text as data: A systematic review and practical recommendations for validation

The search for solid ground in text as data: A systematic review and practical recommendations for validation

No Polarization From Partisan News: Over-Time Evidence From Trace Data

Wojcieszak et al No Polarization from Partisan News IJPP Forthcoming

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