[Research Seminar] IFLAME: “Small screen, big echo? Estimating the political persuasion of local television news bias using Sinclair Broadcast Group as a natural experiment” A. MIHO – PSE
Speaker: Antonela MIHO
PSE
Date and Location – Thursday April 7th 2022 from 12:00 to 13:30 in P400 (Paris campus), in B252 (in visio on the Lille campus) and on Zoom
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ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the heterogeneous effect of biased local TV news on political outcomes and opinions. I exploit the quasi random staggered expansion of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative local TV news conglomerate in the U.S. Using an event study methodology, I estimate that exposure to Sinclair bias since 2004 corresponds to a 2.5% point increase in the presidential Republican vote share during the 2008/2012 election, an effect that doubles during the 2016/2020 elections. Estimates imply that Sinclair convinced 4.6% 13.6% of its potential audience to vote Republican, depending on the election year. The effect is concentrated among “isolated” counties (proxied by population change and the share of minorities and the college educated), in contrast to economic and historical shocks.
Individual level survey data corroborate county level evidence, across treatment groups and election types. Little evidence exists that Sinclair’s bias increases support for traditionally Republican policy positions or populist rhetoric. Instead, I find a 10% differential change in sentiments towards the 2016 Republican candidate, depending on the respondent’s level of education. Congruently, discriminatory attitudes towards minorities and immigrants increased. The totality of the results suggests that political persuasion is a dynamic and affective process, sensitive to environmental and personal characteristics.