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Quantifying partisan news diets in Web and TV audiences
Daniel Muise1, Homa Hosseinmardi2,3, Baird Howland3
1Department of Communication, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Science Advances
|July 20, 2022
Summary
Television news significantly drives partisan segregation among Americans, isolating 17% of the population from opposing political views. This segregation is more pronounced and persistent than online news consumption, posing risks to democratic discourse.
Area of Science:
- Political Communication
- Media Studies
- Audience Analysis
Background:
- Partisan news segregation limits exposure to diverse political viewpoints, potentially harming democratic processes.
- Previous research primarily focused on the online media landscape, underestimating television's role.
- Limited understanding exists regarding the temporal dynamics of news consumption and audience siloing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify and compare partisan audience segregation across television and online news platforms.
- To analyze the temporal stability and concentration of news consumption habits.
- To identify the primary drivers of partisan news segregation in the American media ecosystem.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of billions of user browsing and television viewing events from 2016-2019.
- Development of a novel framework to measure partisan audience segregation.
- Comparative analysis of segregation levels and consumption patterns across media types.
Main Results:
- 17% of Americans exhibit partisan segregation via television, compared to approximately 4% online.
- Television news consumers demonstrate significantly higher month-over-month consistency in their news diets.
- TV news consumption is more concentrated on ideologically aligned sources, with growing audiences for partisan channels despite an overall shrinking TV news audience.
Conclusions:
- Television is the predominant driver of partisan audience segregation in the United States.
- The stability and concentration of television news consumption reinforce ideological siloes.
- Understanding television's role is crucial for addressing the risks of political polarization.
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