Media Effects Across Time and Subject: How News Coverage Affects Two Out of Four Attributes of Consumer Confidence

Abstract

Previous studies using aggregate-level designs demonstrated that the tone of economic news affects consumer confidence. However, the individual-level mechanisms underlying this effect remain to be investigated: It is not clear which consumer confidence attributes are most susceptible to media effects. Theoretically, we integrate the economic voting literature and extend media system dependency by differentiating between the media effects on sociotropic versus egocentric evaluations and the effects on prospective versus retrospective economic evaluations. Methodologically, data from a manual content analysis are linked to data from a three-wave panel survey, containing repeated measurements of consumer confidence. The findings demonstrate that the effects of tone on consumer confidence are largely a consequence of media effects on its sociotropic and prospective attributes: As citizens were exposed to relatively more positive economic news, only the national economic evaluations and expectations for the future improved. The egocentric and retrospective evaluations were not influenced by the tone in news that people had been exposed to.

Prospect Theory in Times of a Pandemic: The Effects of Gain versus Loss Framing on Risky Choices and Emotional Responses during the 2020 Coronavirus Outbreak – Evidence from the US and the Netherlands

“…Even though preferences for interventions may not directly be affected, risk-aversion may be an important outcome in times of a pandemic. As people are highly dependent on the media in times of uncertainty (e.g., Boukes et al, 2019), small differences in the presentation of equivalent information on the consequences of the virus for survivors/deaths may have an impact on support for treatments that avert or seek risks.…”

“…As the coronavirus was novel and uncertain at the time of data collection, and as new developments related to the crisis followed each other at an extremely fast pace, it is not likely that people had already formed strong opinions on the coronavirus. Hence, people's evaluations, behaviors, and opinions in times of an emerging crisis are likely to be strongly dependent on the information they receive from the media (Boukes et al, 2019).…”

“…Literature on media dependency theory demonstrates that people rely more on media coverage in times of crisis (e.g., Boukes et al, 2019). People may thus be susceptible to the specific ways in which the coronavirus is framed by the media at times when the crisis…”

What’s the Tone? Easy Doesn’t Do It: Analyzing Performance and Agreement Between Off-the-Shelf Sentiment Analysis Tools

“…The content analysispart of a broader research project (see, e.g., Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017;Boukes, Damstra, Vliegenthart, 2019) was performed on the economic news coverage of a variety of print and online news outlets. A team of 22 student assistants (i.e., coders) has analyzed news articles published on Mondays through Saturdays (i.e., Sundays are excluded in the current analysis due to the absence of newspapers) between February 1 and July 7, 2015.…”

Taking it personal or national? Understanding the indirect effects of economic news on government support

“…We follow this line of thought and hypothesize a direct effect of economic news on government support: H 1 : The tone of economic news has a direct positive effect on government support Economic growth or decline, business cycles and federal budget deficits, these are all rather elusive phenomena to most people. Hence, the national economy is a topic for which most people depend on the media to get their information (Boukes, Damstra, and Vliegenthart 2019;Zucker 1978). The literature provides ample evidence confirming the impact of economic news on the formation of citizens' economic evaluations (e.g.…”