Were Newspaper Opinion Editors Biased in the 2012 Election? An Experimental Approach

• In Event: 239 - Section on Communication and Information Technologies Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. News, Opinions, Framing and Content

Abstract

Are U.S. newspapers’ opinion page editors biased in their selection of whose political views to represent? This study uses an experimental audit approach in the context of the 2012 Presidential Republican primaries and November general (Obama-Romney) election to examine this question. I send mock letters to the editor supporting Ron Paul and Mitt Romney (for the remaining Republican primaries) and the Republican nominee and Barack Obama (for the general election) to about ten major newspapers in each U.S. state, and examine patterns in newspapers’ expression of interest in publishing the letters. I analyze whether letters favoring particular candidates were given disparate treatment. The results shed light on academic and popular debates about the extent to which U.S. media give favorable treatment to candidates with particular ideologies, to candidates with dominant or subordinate positions in pre-election polling, and to candidates who are ideologically aligned with the particular media outlet’s own editorial board’s views.

Author

• Raj Andrew Ghoshal, Goucher College