Joao, I enjoyed how you combined the findings of these three articles and applied them specifically to Trump's election in 2016. I was particularly intrigued by the fact that Fox News was much better at persuading non-Republican viewers than MSNBC was at persuading Republican viewers. As the Vox article mentioned, this is likely because Fox chooses to focus on maximizing its persuasive power, while MSNBC chooses to set its ideology at a "viewer-maximizing point." Thinking about the lack of focus on local news that was discussed in the podcast, it seems as if MSNBC and CNN (or at least one of them) could likely afford to increase their persuasive power in order to persuade more Republican voters. Of course, a shift towards even more polarized partisan media would likely not be helpful in decreasing polarization within the US, but it might work to make the effects of partisan media on vote choice and attitudes more evenly spread across the two parties.
Your post does a concise way of describing two significant factors that lead to Trump's presidential victory in 2016: exceedingly high earned coverage and Fox's competitive advantage in mobilizing non-Republican voters. Considering that for this upcoming election Biden and Trump poll are very closely, it will be interesting how this election will be a continuation and what will be departure in terms of previous elections.
I think seeing how little Trump spent in advertising in the GOP primary compared to his two most viable challengers, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, shows that the trend in high earned media coverage is still in effect. You also touched on the journal by Garz and Martin that looked at how voters conceptualize the president's success through the economy. A recent news article by Gallup stated that as of most recently, economic indicators are not favorable for Biden.
"Over the past four decades, incumbent presidents have still been reelected when majorities of Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country, but the cutoff seems to be 30% satisfaction. Less than 30% of U.S. adults were satisfied at the time of the 1992 and 2020 elections when the elder Bush and Trump lost, whereas more than 30% were satisfied in the years incumbents won."
Joao, I enjoyed how you combined the findings of these three articles and applied them specifically to Trump's election in 2016. I was particularly intrigued by the fact that Fox News was much better at persuading non-Republican viewers than MSNBC was at persuading Republican viewers. As the Vox article mentioned, this is likely because Fox chooses to focus on maximizing its persuasive power, while MSNBC chooses to set its ideology at a "viewer-maximizing point." Thinking about the lack of focus on local news that was discussed in the podcast, it seems as if MSNBC and CNN (or at least one of them) could likely afford to increase their persuasive power in order to persuade more Republican voters. Of course, a shift towards even more polarized partisan media would likely not be helpful in decreasing polarization within the US, but it might work to make the effects of partisan media on vote choice and attitudes more evenly spread across the two parties.
Hi Joao,
Your post does a concise way of describing two significant factors that lead to Trump's presidential victory in 2016: exceedingly high earned coverage and Fox's competitive advantage in mobilizing non-Republican voters. Considering that for this upcoming election Biden and Trump poll are very closely, it will be interesting how this election will be a continuation and what will be departure in terms of previous elections.
I think seeing how little Trump spent in advertising in the GOP primary compared to his two most viable challengers, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, shows that the trend in high earned media coverage is still in effect. You also touched on the journal by Garz and Martin that looked at how voters conceptualize the president's success through the economy. A recent news article by Gallup stated that as of most recently, economic indicators are not favorable for Biden.
"Over the past four decades, incumbent presidents have still been reelected when majorities of Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country, but the cutoff seems to be 30% satisfaction. Less than 30% of U.S. adults were satisfied at the time of the 1992 and 2020 elections when the elder Bush and Trump lost, whereas more than 30% were satisfied in the years incumbents won."
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