Fox News impacts individual congressperson voting behavior
1,283 views · Published 5 March 2013 · 5:15 · Indexed 22 October 2026
Channel: Vanderbilt University · 2013 · Education
Whether politicians and the press seem like friend or foe, elected officials regularly use news outlets to share and defend their views to the public. New research from Vanderbilt University finds certain media actually influenced the voting behavior of politicians. Associate professor of political science and co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions Joshua Clinton and former Vanderbilt graduate student Ted Enamorado studied the impact of the FOX News Channel on the voting behavior of members of Congress in the late 1990's. The researchers used a statistical method to analyze and compare the lawmakers' voting behavior. "We found the presence of FOX News in some districts caused those legislators whose constituents were exposed to FOX News to become more conservative and vote accordingly," said Clinton. "This transformation occurred despite the fact that the average legislator in this sample was becoming slightly more liberal." To learn more about Vanderbilt, visit http://www.vanderbilt.edu.
