William_T._Bianco,_David_T._Canon]_American_Polit

240240 Chapter 7 | The Media

at a political story or video that appears in your news feed. Perhaps the story is a profile of

Senator Jeff Flake, who might challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 elections.

Though you didn’t plan to read about Jeff Flake, you wind up doing so just because the

story comes up in your feed. However, when people receive information as a by-product,

they don’t evaluate it in the same way that they evaluate information gained through a

careful search, such as if you decided on your own to investigate Flake’s background and

issue positions. Suppose the story criticizes Flake’s position on immigration. If you came

upon this information after searching on your own, you would probably think about

whether the source was credible or whether you cared about immigration policy in the

first place. Because you are not consciously searching for information, you are much less

likely to be skeptical when you acquire information as a by-product.^15

Whether people seek out political information deliberately or acquire it as a

by-product, there are some systematic differences in media use depending on their

ideological beliefs. Table 7.1 shows the main campaign news source for Trump and

Clinton voters in the 2016 election.

Clearly, there are some sharp differences between Trump voters and Clinton voters:

by a large margin, the most important source for Trump voters was Fox News, while

only 3 percent of Clinton voters relied on Fox News for information. Some sources, such

as local radio (probably talk radio), local newspapers, the New York Times, MSNBC,

or NPR, appear on only one list or the other. However, there is also some overlap: both

Trump and Clinton voters used the major networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, as well as

local TV. It’s important to note that these data are based on a survey question that asked

respondents for their main source of information, and it is likely that most voters got

information from more than one source. The survey also did not address information

gained as a by-product.

The question raised by Table 7.1 is whether the differences in issue positions and

policy demands of Trump and Clinton voters are driven by the differences in the media

sources they consume. Do some people demand liberal policies because they listen

to CNN, while others demand conservative policies because they listen to Fox News?

The answer is almost surely no. As we discussed in Chapter 6, people aren’t liberal or

conservative because of the stories they listen to, watch, or read—their beliefs run much

The weekly audience for Rush

Limbaugh’s program, the top

conservative talk radio show, is

13 million.

The top liberal program has an

audience of only 2 million.

Source: Politico.com

DID YOU KNOW?

All I know is just what I read in

the papers, and that’s an alibi for

my ignorance.

— Will Rogers

Main Campaign

News Source

for Trump and

Clinton Voters

in 2016

TA B L E

7.1 Trump Voters Clinton Voters

Fox News (40%) CNN (18%)

CNN (8%) MSNBC (9%)

Facebook (7%) Facebook (8%)

NBC (6%) Local TV (8%)

Local TV (5%) NPR (7%)

ABC (3%) ABC (6%)

CBS (3%) New York Times (5%)

Local radio (3%) CBS (5%)

NBC (4%)

Local newspapers (4%)

Fox News (3%)

Source: Pew Research Center, “Trump, Clinton Voters Divided in Their Main Source for Election News,” January 18,

2018, http://www.journalism.org (accessed 2/1/2018).

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