Democratic Representation and the Emergence of Partisan News Media: Investigating Dynamic Partisanship in Congress

Abstract

Technological innovations over the past decade have expanded the number of news and entertainment options available to consumers, leading to the emergence of partisan news media. We contend that the emergence of partisan media should have decisive effects on the strategic calculations of elected representatives who are chronic consumers of news media. Moreover, we theorize that partisan news media's influence on legislative behavior will be most apparent when elections are near. Exploiting the incremental roll-out of the conservative Fox News Channel in the late 1990s, we find that the emergence of Fox News caused U.S. House members to alter their levels of party support dynamically, responding both to the proximity of elections and changes in the media environment in their district. Fox News caused both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to increase support for the Republican Party on divisive votes in the waning months of the election cycle.

Keywords: legislative politics, legislative behavior, U.S. Congress, U.S. House, Fox, Fox News, news media, media influence, media effect, media, parties, partisanship, roll-call voting, dynamic partisanship

JEL Classification: D70, D72, D78