The American Viewer

• In Event: Voting, Political News and the Campaign

Abstract

In these polarized times, entertainment media provides a unique route into public consciousness. We argue that these ostensibly apolitical alternatives to traditional news provide some of the only uncontested, “one-sided information flows,” that bypass existing political screens. We analyze a prominent case: The Apprentice. Exploiting the geographic variation in NBC spillover viewership, we find that early exposure to The Apprentice increased Donald Trump’s electoral performance in the 2016 Republican primary, most prominently in open primaries where independents participate. Yet we find no effect for the general election, campaign contributions, or other primary candidates. A pre-election survey of white voters suggests that the program helped them develop an affinity for candidate Trump and discount negative information about him. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of the rise of celebrity politicians around the globe in our post-broadcast, fragmented media environment.

Authors

• Eunji Kim, Columbia University

• Shawn Thomas Patterson