TY - JOUR
T1 - The influence of news media on political elites
T2 - investigating strategic responsiveness in Congress
AU - Arceneaux, K.
AU - Johnson, M.
AU - Lindstädt, R.
AU - Vander Wielen, R.J.
PY - 2016/1/6
Y1 - 2016/1/6
N2 - News media play a central role in democratic politics, yet we know little about how media affect the behavior of policy makers. To understand the conditions under which news media influence political elites, we advance a theory of strategic responsiveness, which contends that elected representatives are more likely to heed their constituents' preferences when voters are attentive. Accordingly, news media's influence on legislative behavior should be most apparent near elections and dependent on the partisan composition of the constituency. We capitalize on the incremental rollout of the conservative Fox News Channel in the late 1990s to evaluate our theoretical predictions. Fox News caused both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to increase support for the Republican Party position on divisive votes, but only in the waning months of the election cycle and among those members who represent districts with a sizable portion of Republican voters.
AB - News media play a central role in democratic politics, yet we know little about how media affect the behavior of policy makers. To understand the conditions under which news media influence political elites, we advance a theory of strategic responsiveness, which contends that elected representatives are more likely to heed their constituents' preferences when voters are attentive. Accordingly, news media's influence on legislative behavior should be most apparent near elections and dependent on the partisan composition of the constituency. We capitalize on the incremental rollout of the conservative Fox News Channel in the late 1990s to evaluate our theoretical predictions. Fox News caused both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to increase support for the Republican Party position on divisive votes, but only in the waning months of the election cycle and among those members who represent districts with a sizable portion of Republican voters.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84953837409&partnerID=MN8TOARS
U2 - 10.1111/ajps.12171
DO - 10.1111/ajps.12171
M3 - Article
SN - 0092-5853
VL - 60
SP - 5
EP - 29
JO - American Journal of Political Science
JF - American Journal of Political Science
IS - 1
ER -