Local media tone, economic conditions, and the evaluation of US governors. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Clark, Nicholas; Makse, Todd
• Is Part Of: Journal of elections, public opinions & parties. Volume 29:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 82
• Page End: 101
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Elections -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Political parties -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Public opinion -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1945- -- Periodicals; 324.941086005
• DOI: 10.1080/17457289.2018.1464013
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-7289

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Connections between media coverage, economic conditions, and performance evaluations of political leaders have seldom been explored in specific local media markets, due to the challenges of measuring media tone and content for a large number of media outlets or markets. In this paper, we develop a measure of media tone by comparing the economic evaluations of local media consumers and national media consumers within the same media market. We then use this measure to evaluate the relationship between media tone and objective economic conditions. We find that positive media tone increases the probability that individuals will approve of the governor's performance in office, and that tone also attenuates the negative relationship between unemployment and gubernatorial approval.