Post‐Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections – By Markus Prior

Right-Wing YouTube: A Supply and Demand Perspective

“…In response to what was then plausibly called the "hyperchoice" cable news context, Arceneaux and Johnson (2013) develop the active audience theory. They argue against a supply-centric model of the effect of cable television on politics, highlighting instead the fact that many people made an active choice in their viewing habits that resulted in dramatically lower news consumption (also demonstrated by Prior 2007).…”

“…The rollout of cable television and the development of partisan cable news was the most politically important development in communication technology in the second half of the twentieth century (Arceneaux and Johnson 2013;DellaVigna and Kaplan 2006;Martin and Yurukoglu 2017;Prior 2007). The primary reason is that there were more channels, and thus people consumed more partisan news in the aggregate than the average local newspaper or radio market.…”

Attitudes towards no-European Immigrants in EU: The Role of Legacy Media and New Media

“…However, TV power is still an important factor for structuring public opinion: the dramatic content of images proposed by TV news has "a greater capacity to provoke a more "vivid" reading of the facts and centred on emotions such as sympathy, envy, empathy, antipathy, and, even disgust" (Lai et al, 2016: 67), although their persistence over time is less long-lasting (Graber, 2001). In order to evaluate the effects, we should never forget the increasingly fragmented media market (Bennett and Iyengar, 2008) and the emergence of a post-broadcast era (Prior, 2007).…”

Online Incidental Exposure to News Can Minimize Interest-Based Political Knowledge Gaps: Evidence from Two U.S. Elections

“…First, motivation has long been considered a crucial determinant of learning from the media. Numerous studies conducted prior to the widespread adoption of the Internet examined how media use had differential effects on learning for motivated individuals (i.e., interested, educated) compared with those with low motivation (e.g., Baum 2002;Neuman et al 1992;Prior 2007). Second, as media systems transitioned from low choice to high choice, opportunities to access news and political information expanded, including unintentional exposure to this content.…”

“…As the Internet has become widely adopted, there is debate about whether the unprecedented choice afforded by new communication technology amplifies or reduces political inequality. Of particular concern have been preference-based gaps in news exposure that emerge when individuals opt out of news in favor of more entertainment-oriented content like sports, movies, or streaming services that better reflect their interests (Prior 2007;Van Aelst et al 2017). Some argue that individuals interested in politics will seek news content, further bolstering their well-established base of political knowledge, while those who lack interest in politics will choose entertainment or non-political content and ultimately learn little about politics.…”