Doctoral Dissertation: Economic news and public perceptions of the U.S. Economy

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

There are well established political science findings that the performance of the national economy influences public opinion and elections, yet little is understood about the causal path along which this influence travels. Since evidence indicates the critical role of citizens' views of national economic performance in the process, more research is needed on the ways in which these views are formed. This Doctoral Dissertation Research project examines the influence of mass media news reports upon public perceptions of the economy. Two-dependent variables representing public perceptions are studied: public evaluations of economic performance and salience of the economy as an important public issue. This research provides new insights into the role of information flows in democratic processes. Media content conveying messages from elite and journalistic sources is expected to exert an effect upon public opinion which is independent of the effects of actual objective measures of economic performance. In order to asses this hypothesis, an original content analysis will be utilized to develop datasets representing economic news content from both television and newsprint. Using these datasets along with time-series data representing actual economic conditions will allow testing for independent media effects on collective public opinion over a six-year period. In addition, data from a panel survey will be used to investigate the sources of changes in the economic views of individuals over a two-year time period.