Changing channels? A comparison of Fox and MSNBC in 2012, 2016, and 2020

Abstract

We compare the contents of Fox and MSNBC weekday evening telecasts using natural language analysis with Linguistic Inventory Word Count (LIWC) and sociopolitical dictionaries tapping into moral foundations, values, grievances, and personality. Across time, the two networks differed substantially across many constructs, particularly those from LIWC. The core of the difference between the networks was captured by a four‐component measure which we labeled Personalizing versus Formal speech. Scores on this measure were particularly volatile during 2019 and 2020, a period which included Trump's first impeachment, the beginning of the COVID pandemic, and the 2020 presidential campaign. In comparison with prior presidential election years, only MSNBC showed a drop in positive emotions in 2020, while both networks increased in the use of communal and analytic language. Contrary to our expectations, the language style of the two networks did not demonstrate increasing divergence over time.

One nation, under war: Did the language of Fox News and MSNBC converge during the invasion of Ukraine?

“…The findings of Lanning et al. (2021) harken back to some of the differences between liberals and conservatives found in earlier investigations. Fox News's use of personalizing language may be related to conservatives’ tendency towards rigidity and familiarity, as addressing the audience by using words such as “you” fosters connectedness and group identity, thus potentially cementing bonds with viewers.…”

“…We computed the PFI for each network by averaging five centered and standardized measures: LIWC Second Person Pronouns and four reverse-coded variables (i.e., LIWC Pronouns, Analytic (language), Impersonal Pronouns, as well as Nouns from BUTTER). Higher values on the PFI rep-resent higher use of personalizing language, and lower values represent a greater use of formal language (Lanning et al, 2021). We ran a set of analyses across the entire dataset after grouping transcripts by month.…”

“…One area in which polarized language may be particularly evident is in differences between partisan media outlets. For example, Lanning et al (2021) found that the largest differentiating factor between Fox News (a conservative outlet) and MSNBC (a liberal outlet) was a dimension of speech which they labelled the Personalizing versus Formal Index (PFI). Personalizing language is language composed of specific reference to others, and formalizing language is composed of analytic language and impersonal descriptions.…”

“…One way that polarization manifests among political elites is in increased homogeneity of within‐party votes in the legislature (McCarty et al., 2016). Political polarization may impact the way that groups communicate with and about one another (Conover et al., 2011; Kubin & von Sikorski, 2021; Yarchi et al., 2021), leading to changes in the language cross‐partisans use when talking about the issues of the day (KhudaBukhsh et al., 2021; Lanning et al., 2021; Schoonvelde et al., 2019).…”

What Motivates the Vaccination Rift Effect? Psycho-Linguistic Features of Responses to Calls to Get Vaccinated Differ by Source and Recipient Vaccination Status

“…In line with this view, linguistic analyses can identify ongoing psychological processes such as personality [ 26 ], relations between groups [ 27 ], and processes within groups [ 28 ]. Linguistic analyses have also proven useful in investigating a range of phenomena, including group interaction processes [ 29 ], communication [ 30 ], and societal divides [ 31 ]. Analyzing the words people use rather than their responses to a Likert-type scale has the advantage that participants can give free responses.…”