New research investigated how Fox News affected favorability ratings toward Barack Obama during his first presidential bid in 2008.

The study, published in Political Research Quarterly, found that the partisan news media outlet affected Obama’s favorability during the first five months of the election year, but those effects disappeared during the last five months of the campaign. The negative impact of Fox News’ coverage persisted only among less politically knowledgeable viewers.

The findings were based on two large-scale surveys, which included tens of thousands of respondents, and a content analysis of media coverage.

PsyPost interviewed Glen Smith of the University of North Georgia about his research. Read the responses below:

PsyPost: Why were you interested in this topic?

Smith: I’m very interested in politics and current events, which leads me to watch political programs on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. Naturally, I couldn’t help but wonder how much audiences were influenced by these partisan media outlets. Do partisan media simply preach to the choir, or do they add to partisan polarization and hostility?

What should the average person take away from your study?

There are three main findings in my study. First, partisan media help their audiences establish initial impressions of candidates very early in the election year, but those effects disappear as the election progresses. Specifically, my research shows that Fox News had its largest (negative) effects on Obama’s favorability from January – April of 2008, but had no apparent effect over the last six months of the election (May – October). During the general election period, Republicans already agreed with Fox News, while Democrats pretty much ignored everything they said.

Second, partisan media may be able to turn opposing partisans against their eventual nominee. My research shows that Fox News was able make Democrats much less favorable towards Obama during the Democratic primary, but only if they supported another Democrat for the nomination. Fox News had no effect on viewers that supported Obama for the nomination. The reason is that Democrats supporting other candidates had no incentive to counter-argue Fox News when they attacked Obama. After the primary was over however, Fox News had no effect on Democrats regardless of who they supported in the primary. Once Obama was the Democratic nominee, Democrats had more incentive to defend him against Fox News.

Third, during the last six months of the election campaign, partisan media effects are limited to less politically knowledgeable viewers. The problem for partisan media is that most of their viewers are politically informed, which means that they only influence a small number of people late in the campaign.

Are there any major caveats? What questions still need to be addressed?

One important caveat is that my research was a case study of the 2008 election. Case studies are useful because they allow for theory building and in-depth analysis of a particular instance. More research is needed to determine whether these results generalize to other contexts such as incumbents running for reelection. Another question that needs to be addressed is the effects of watching multiple news outlets. Will watching MSNBC counter the effects of watching Fox News, and vice versa? Additionally, are partisan media able to rally viewers to a candidate they support? Most previous research in this area focuses on general elections, but my research suggests that partisan media are likely to have much larger effects on candidate evaluations during the party primaries.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Perhaps the most important lesson from my research is the need for surveys that span the entire election year. I was fortunate that the National Annenberg Election Survey was conducted throughout 2008, but that is a rarity among large scale surveys. Hopefully, the proliferation of cheaper internet surveys will allow researchers to examine campaign effects during the early periods of the year, when voters are more persuadable.

The study was titled: “The Timing of Partisan Media Effects during a Presidential Election“.