The Political Economy of Propaganda: Evidence from Us Newspapers

The Effect of Propaganda on Elections: Evidence from the Post-Reconstruction South

“…Furthermore, the finding that propaganda increased vote share for Populist candidates builds on the understanding, first identified by Kousser (1974), of why Populists may have considered Black Republicans to be corrupt. Contrary to Ottinger and Winkler (2022), I find no evidence that historical support for the Populist Party influenced the measure of anti-Black propaganda during the critical election periods. The findings from this paper imply that additional examination of voter turnout and vote share around other critical elections may be worthwhile, especially as it is related to violence, voter fraud, and other extralegal voter suppression strategies.…”

“…Specifically, when Democrats came into power, the circulation of papers affiliated with the Democratic Party generally increased and those affiliated with the Republican Party decreased. Ottinger and Winkler (2022) also find evidence that anti-Black coverage of newspapers affiliated with the Democratic Party was driven by the political threat experienced by Democratic politicians.…”

“…It is also possible that the results are driven by higher levels of anti-Black propaganda in counties where the Populist Party had been stronger historically. For instance, Ottinger and Winkler (2022) find that anti-Black propaganda, measured by instances of "rape AND negro" in newspapers throughout the South, increased in newspapers affiliated with the Democratic Party after the 1892 presidential election in counties where there was some support for the Populist Party candidate James Weaver. This may suggest that anti-Black propaganda was historically higher in counties where the Democratic Party had experienced credible competition.…”

“…Periods include first and second critical election periods defined by Table 2. Populist threat is measured as any Populist vote share in the presidential election of 1892 over zero which is similar to the measure used by Ottinger and Winkler (2022). Source: Author's calculations.…”

“…Anti-Black propaganda was an important part of the Democratic Party campaign to maintain political control (Prince, 2014). Political competition experienced by Democratic politicians in the South has been associated with the dissemination of anti-Black sentiment by a sympathetic press (Woodward, 2002;Glaeser, 2005;Ottinger and Winkler, 2022). Several examples of biracial coalitions that challenged the Democratic Party emerged between the 1860s and the 1890s.…”