Partisan Media Selectivity and Partisan Identity Threat: The Role of Social and Geographic Context

Abstract

There is growing concern about the polarizing impact of citizens primarily choosing sources of political information consistent with their existing partisan perspective. Although research has begun providing answers about the consequences, questions remain about what factors drive such selective use of political media. This study conceptualizes partisanship as a social identity and the decision to selectively use like-minded political media as a method for maintenance of that identity. Using the logic of the reinforcing spirals model (Slater, 2007, 2015), we investigated partisan media selectivity as a response to identity threat. We argue the partisan composition of one’s geographic locale and the presence of partisan difference in one’s interpersonal network are common causes of identity threat, which we predict will be associated with compensatory use of partisan media. Results from national survey data generally provide support for the assertion that greater partisan media selectivity is associated with the presence of various forms of identity threat, especially for strong partisans.

Notes

¹ Weights are not used in analyses in order to have more efficient estimates (Bollen, Biemer, Karr, Tueller, & Berzofsky, 2016). To ensure this did not bias coefficients, the tests described by DuMouchel and Duncan (1983) and by Pfefferman and Sverchkov (1999) were used, revealing no significant difference in the coefficients of any variable in any model when weights are used, meaning the models are specified correctly without the weights.

² Descriptive statistics reported from here forward describe only the portion of the sample included in analysis.

³ This involved searching LexisNexis for the name of the show or its host and restricting results to those in which one of the words “liberal,” “Democrat,” “conservative,” and “Republican” appeared within 10 words of the target term. The authors then examined the results, discarding examples when the words did not refer to the show or host. If each of the first five descriptions of the show or host were unanimous, that categorization was accepted. If none of the first 50 results described the show or its host as partisan, the show was treated as nonpartisan.

⁴ Twenty-two respondents either did not provide a valid ZIP code or lived in a ZIP code that crosses county lines. They were not included in analyses.

⁵ The lone respondent who skipped this item is omitted from analyses.

⁶ This variable is not used as an offset, as is sometimes done in Poisson models, because we find it unlikely that total political media consumption is exogenous to partisan media consumption, a key assumption of using the offset (Winkelmann, 2008). Instead, we include it as a predictor and let the data determine the relationship between total sources and partisan sources.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jacob A. Long

Jacob A. Long (B.A., Rhodes College, 2014) is a doctoral student in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. His research interests include the role of entertainment, political media, and social environments in the maintenance and formation of political attitudes and social identity.

William P. Eveland

William P. Eveland, Jr. (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1997) is a professor in the School of Communication and (by courtesy) the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. His research interests include the contributions of mass and interpersonal communication to democracy.

Michael D. Slater

Michael D. Slater (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1988) is the Social and Behavioral Science Distinguished Professor and Director of the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. His research interests include theory-building efforts in understanding narrative processing and impact, and in exploring dynamic processes of media use and identity formation and maintenance, as well as an extensive research program in the use of mediated communication to influence health attitudes and behavior.