Issues, Media, and Polarization in Spain

• In Event: Legacies of History and Contemporary Politics

Abstract

Concern about increasing political and affective polarization extends to countries with a history of conflict. Polarization is often linked to previous instances of political violence, which legacies are enduring. Previous research on public opinion has highlighted the polarizing role of supply-side factors, including the effect of media. However, we know little about how the media affects polarization depending on the issue dimension. Issues related to past conflict, which tend to touch on social identity dimensions, could be more susceptible to polarization than other issues. In this paper, we develop a survey experiment in Spain to explore these questions. Building on De Benedictis-Kessner (2019), we use a Preference-Incorporating Choice and Assignment (PICA) research design, by which we identify respondents' media choices and examine the effect of exposure to oppositional and congenial sources. We determine if the effects differ depending on the issue they are exposed to: past conflict (the Spanish Civil War) or economic policy. The experimental design allows us to recreate a complete media consumption process, where individuals are free to choose media sources but might also be forcibly exposed to oppositional media.

Authors

• Laia Balcells, Georgetown University

• Juan Fernando Tellez, University of California, Davis

• Francisco Villamil, Carlos III University of Madrid