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Issue selection, media competition, and polarization of salience

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  • Yamaguchi, Yohei

Abstract

In a political competition, political parties run their campaign communications to attract voters' attention to issues in which the parties have an advantage. Investigating how parties' issue selection strategy affects issue salience is crucial, considering the media outlets' behavior, as most voters receive political communication from parties through media reporting. In this study, I develop an issue selection model that incorporates the profit-maximization behavior of media outlets. First, I find that the issue coverage of media outlets diverges even when they do not have ideological preferences. Second, competition among media outlets and the strategic issue selection of parties lead to polarization in voters' issue salience weights. Finally, I show that this polarization increases the vote share of the party with lower-quality policy proposals. The results could be essential to understanding the relationship between issue salience, media, and their effect on electoral competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Yamaguchi, Yohei, 2022. "Issue selection, media competition, and polarization of salience," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 197-225.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:136:y:2022:i:c:p:197-225
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2022.09.004
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electoral competition; Political campaign; Priming; Media bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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