The changing media environment of presidential campaigns

We argue that the process selecting a president is important and that this important democratic decision requires information. Given that virtually no voters learn about the candidates for the presidency via personal contact, and that what information is available to voters varies by medium, this makes the question of where voters obtain information about the candidate very important. National Election Studies longitudinal data from 1952–2000 reveals that 82% report that they learn about presidential campaigns from television, 69% from newspapers, 48% from radio, 71% from debate, and 72% from political discussion. However, we argue that the media environment is dynamic (e.g., cable television and the Internet have dramatically changed the information available to voters). We correlate media use with election year, showing that use of newspapers to learn about presidential elections had dropped over time, along with radio and debates. Use of television and magazines do not show a clear trend. Political discussion as a source of political information, first measured by NES in 1984, has increased significantly over time. If the past is a good indication, we can expect media use patterns to change in the future with emergence and greater penetration of new media technologies.