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The Economic Journal· 2026Q1

Media Slant is Contagious

Philine Widmer, Clémentine Abed Meraim, Sergio Galletta, Elliott Ash

Short summary

Higher Fox News Channel (FNC) viewership causes local newspapers to adopt a more right-wing slant, emerging gradually over several years.

AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.

Key points

  • Higher Fox News Channel (FNC) viewership is linked to a more right-wing slant in local U.S. newspapers.
  • The effect of FNC viewership on newspaper slant emerges gradually, taking several years to become apparent.
  • The study used Congressional speeches to scale the political slant of local newspaper articles.
  • Channel positioning was used as an instrument for FNC viewership.
  • A key driver of the shift in newspaper slant appears to be changes in local political preferences.

AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the diffusion of media slant. We document the influence of Fox News Channel (FNC) on the partisan slant of local newspapers in the U.S. over the years 1995-2008. We measure the political slant of local newspapers by scaling the news article texts to Republicans’ and Democrats’ speeches in Congress. Using channel positioning as an instrument for viewership, we find that higher FNC viewership causes local newspapers to adopt more right-wing slant. The effect emerges gradually, only several years after FNC’s introduction, mirroring the channel’s growing influence on voting behaviour. A main driver of the shift in newspaper slant appears to be a change in local political preferences.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. The Economic Journal, 2026 · DOI ↗

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Field: Sociology and Political Science

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