Media fragmentation and the polarization of the American public

ABSTRACT

The share of Americans having no opinion about the President’s job performance has fallen since 1950, a manifestation of the political polarization that has increasingly impeded U.S. policymaking. Time series analysis attributes this to greater media fragmentation, as tracked by trends in shifts towards cable TV and computer access to media. Results suggest that political polarization will likely persist at high levels absent structural shifts.

KEYWORDS:

• Political polarization
• media fragmentation
• cable TV
• internet use

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• P16
• D70
• D80

Highlights

• Rising cable TV and internet use are proxies implying greater media fragmentation.

• Share of Americans with no opinion about presidential performance has trended down.

• Greater media fragmentation is statistically linked to a more opinionated public.

Acknowledgments

We thank Michael Weiss for comments. Views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors are ours.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.