The 2014 Midterm Elections on Local Television: Frames, Sources, and Valence

Modeling Partisan Media Effects in the 2014 U.S. Midterm Elections

“…However, national media coverage of individual candidates in down-ballot races is minimal (Baum & Groeling, 2008) because the details of the campaign are generally only pertinent to the voters in that state. Hence, most cognitive learning about midterm elections should come from local media and campaign ads (Dimitrova & Hu, 2016; Eveland, 2001; Wei & Lo, 2008), not from national partisan media outlets. Instead, ideological outlets should primarily function to emphasize partisan identities and therefore polarize evaluations of the candidates by cuing intergroup competition.…”