Watching Bill O’Reilly’s network seems to have a powerful effect on viewers’ racial attitudes. (image via Crooks & Liars)
Since the election of Obama in 2008, Americans have become increasingly polarized about racial issues. At the same time, Americans have also become more polarized in their news media viewing habits. In the wake of horrifying events like the racially motivated mass murder in a Charleston church, some have connected these trends; Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 3/19/15), for example, criticized Fox News for ignoring the reality of systemic racism.
Is there any merit to such criticisms? Do media and racial polarization reinforce each other? Is there a connection between news media viewing habits and attitudes about racial equality? Based on an analysis of the American National Election Studies 2012 dataset, we find that white respondents who regularly watch Fox News are more likely to express attitudes of symbolic racism and racial resentment. This is especially true of those Fox News viewers who live in the South.
One common expression of racial resentment is the stereotype that black people have disproportionate influence over the levers of power. Though people of color are far more likely to live under an unrepresentative city council and have far less influence over policy, many racist whites wrongly think that government disproportionately benefits non-whites through social programs.
Our analysis suggests that regular Fox News viewers are more likely to hold such opinions, even after controlling for other factors such as individual race, age, income, education, partisanship, ideology, religiosity and geography. In the graph below, we compare conservative white Republicans who watch Fox News regularly to those who do not. The results show that regular Fox News viewers are significantly more likely to think that blacks have too much political influence. Those Fox News viewers who live in the South are the most likely to hold such attitudes.
The graph indicates that watching Fox News makes a non-Southerner just as likely to think blacks have too much political power as a Southerner who doesn’t watch Fox News regularly. These findings give credence to the idea that Fox News coverage that stokes such racist mythologies (see, e.g., Extra!, 9/13) may indeed be reinforcing negative racial stereotypes.
Increasingly, racism hides behind an ideology of “colorblindness,” a phenomenon sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva discusses in his book Racism Without Racists. ANES has several questions that can help identify such colorblind racism. One asks respondents whether “it’s really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites.” The graph below shows that Republicans are significantly more likely to agree with this statement compared to Democratic partisans.
Among those who watch Fox News regularly, the same pattern holds, but with an additional twist. Democrats who watch Fox News regularly are far more likely to agree that blacks must work harder than Democrats who do not watch Fox News. In fact, their views become indistinguishable from those of Republicans are who do not watch Fox News.
In another assessment of whether respondents view structural racism as a barrier to black upward mobility, respondents are asked if they agree that “Irish, Italians, Jewish and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without any special favors.” Here, being a regular viewer of Fox News significantly predicts an affirmative response.
Controlling for other important factors, Fox News viewers are much less likely to agree that structural racism is a barrier to black upward mobility. Fox News viewers are also more likely to disagree that “generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class,” and less likely to agree that “’over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve.”
In total, of the 10 racially related variables examined, five showed a statistically significant Fox News effect. While Fox News viewership appears to influence views related to racial resentment, the effects on perceptions of discrimination, and stereotypes about intelligence and work ethic, are not statistically significant: Fox News didn’t predict whether respondents think discrimination against blacks is still a problem, or whether they stereotyped black people as unintelligent.
Indeed, there was no Fox News effect across the entire battery of variables that measure overt racial stereotyping (Hispanic/Latino, Asian and black). This is consistent with other research that suggests that racism in America today consists less of overt racial stereotyping (i.e., black people are unintelligent) and more of racial resentment (i.e., black people need to work harder to be as successful as whites). This could make discourse about racism difficult, as progressives and conservatives adopt different ideas about how racism shapes American society.
Because of the recent waves of Islamophobic violence and heated rhetoric on the right, we were curious about the possibility that Fox News stoked these tensions. Republicans who watch Fox News regularly, compared to other Republicans, are slightly (but statistically significantly) more likely to say that “violent” describes Muslims well. Democrats who watch Fox News regularly are dramatically more likely to say that “violent” describes Muslims well than other Democrats. In fact, Democrats and Republicans who watch Fox News regularly are equally likely to say that violent describes Muslims well. This result is stunning, and repeats what we saw above: Watching Fox News may be a stronger indicator of bias on some racial issues than than party affiliation.
Does Fox News attract racist viewers, or is there something about Fox News that makes their viewers more racist? Or is there some other factor that isn’t examined here driving both trends? Although it’s impossible to say definitively, we can find clues in previous research.
First, studies find that Fox News viewers do seem to have views that are different from the general viewing population–tending to underestimate casualties in Iraq, for example. Other research suggests that some of the issues Fox viewers diverge on relate directly to racial issues. A study of the proposed NYC “Ground Zero” mosque suggests that those who relied heavily on Fox for their news were more likely to believe false rumors about the cultural center and mosque—for example, that the imam who supported it was a terrorist sympathizer.
A 2010 report found that those who watched Fox News “almost daily” were 31 percentage points more likely to believe that “it is not clear” that Obama was born in the United States. ANES also suggests that Fox News viewers (both Republican and Democrat) are significantly more likely to think Obama was not born in the United States than non-viewers.
In addition, one study has documented an independent Fox News effect: that Republican vote share increases when a town gains access to Fox News. If the channel can mobilize votes for the GOP, it seems reasonable that it might affect viewers’ racial perceptions. Two other academic studies find that Fox News has the power to influence policy. A 2012 study by political scientists Joshua Clifton and Ted Enamorado found that “representatives from districts where Fox News begins broadcasting become slightly more conservative” (and that the effect was strongest among Democrats). More recently, political scientists Kevin Arceneaux and his colleagues found that “Fox News caused both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to increase support for the Republican Party position on divisive votes,” though this effect was limited by electoral pressures.
Other studies suggest that media coverage can affect viewers’ attitudes about race: Research shows that local media coverage of crime that is heavily racialized increases anti-black attitudes among white viewers. The long history of race-baiting at Fox News raises suspicions that its coverage is indeed affecting its viewers’ racial attitudes. More research needs to be done, but it appears that Fox News‘ connection to racial polarization may be a powerful one.
Sean McElwee is a research associate at Demos. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMcElwee
Jason McDaniel is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. Follow him on twitter at @ValisJason
You can write to Fox News at yourcomments@foxnews.com (or on Twitter: @FoxNews). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
When Rupert Murdoch first brought Fox News into the USA he got an exemption from US laws against Monopolies in the media thru his infamous deal with Newt Gingrich – a book deal for Newt, an exemption for Rupert.
Then Murdoch gave the Fox “New” service FREE to all US employers to show in their employee cafeterias. On the condition that it was the only thing shown. There is always a segment of every population that can’t be bothered to make any effort to keep up with news and that’s exactly the segment Murdoch has always appealed to (starting way back with his infamous “page 3 girl” in Australia free giveaway “news” rags. Always on page 3 because she always was so close to naked that no newsstand would carry it if it was on the first page. The testosterone driven got it for the soft porn and read what was presented as news when they got bored. And because they never bothered to read any actual news, they swallowed it. And all too often made the difference in local elections.
It was the same thing with fox news in employee cafeterias except that it was a captive audience. Employees who had no place else to eat had nothing to watch but Fox news.
Which makes what the article showed all the more disturbing.
Rupert Murdoch has brought out the worst in the worst of America
Call it “value added” racism
Do Racists love Fox?
Does a duck love the Pacific Ocean?
Does a Bear like Charmin in the Woods?
Fox is the all important “they are saying what I want to believe” channel, but with entertainment cause we all know “Libburals don’t how to say the News right”.
The big issue is the fact when “FOX” takes over an area, any other coverage is lost, in all the media. They present such a wide range of baloney, that eventually people stop listening to anything that doesn’t match what they want to believe. As Molly Ivins used to say “Bubba knows he is getting screwed. He knows that he is working harder and making less pay”. Limbaugh and company give him a target to blame, all neatly wrapped up in tiny little sound bites that he can consume with out chocking on.
So the american people are working harder and longer, which mean way less time to research the facts. After hearing the same set of “Facts” spewed 20 times a day from all forms of media, they figure if so many people are spewing it, it must be ‘right’. And this is people who should know better.
This seems to be a chicken and egg question, No doubt those who watch Fox News regularly get the type of news they’ve come to expect–with a slant to confirm their core set of beliefs. While the subtle shifts in attitudes reflect the change from de jure to de facto racism, no substantive relief from the residual effects of centuries-old, institutional racism is possible so long as our economy treats employment as a privilege instead of a right. As blue collar jobs disappear and the number of the permanently unemployed increases without relief, either the government must create the needed jobs or arm itself in protection from the millions of desperate, forgotten fellow citizens.
Democracy is not a zero-sum game, and such an economic model is undemocratic. Mass unemployment promises (and delivers) group and racial hatred, increased crime, public law & order clampdowns, broken families and a general breakdown in civilization. As a nation, we must either create sufficient jobs for all or prepare ourselves for the economic and social collapse from which this democracy may never recover.
Who has the blood guilt for terrorism, who by generating overpowering vengeance has driven freedom fighters to commit acts of terrorism? But surely, it has to be those who make the most profit from terrorism.
Comes now a realization that our voting majority, the upper half of Empire USA, the 51% most wealthy that hoards all the wealth in USA, as they so love the best money maker known to man, the trading of war materials for Middle-East oil, hang our head in shame we surely must.
So, we terrorizing criminals, we should blame FOX News for our greed driven and drone killer lust for cheep oil? That’s what I always say.
I respect FAIR so much. Have followed them for over a decade. I trust their analyses. This is a mind-blowing analysis of race and unmentionable discrimination over decades, in media, that has such a powerful hold on “we the people”. Hitler understood this. We must walk away from the abyss.
I have a few suggestions for Fox News. First, ditch both Carlsons, Tucker and Gretchen … they are lousy journalists and even worse TV news personalities. Likewise for Greta Van Susteren. She’s terrible. Why Elizabeth Hasselbeck was hired in the first place to anchor Fox and Friends when they had much better journalists already on staff is beyond me. Thank goodness she quit and you canned Glenn Beck, the Sean Hannity wannabe. If you truly want to be “fair and balanced” temper the conservative extremist commentary of Greg Gutfeld and (if you keep him) Tucker Carlson. Their tones reek of hatred for any other political; views and ideas. Let’s get the media outlets back to the days of being impartial and providing worthwhile and trustworthy journalism instead of left-wing and right-wing favoritism. That implies to NBC and it’s affiliates as well.
We are hard-wired to believe anything we hear and understand. It’s a result of millions of years of evolution. Education can provide the skills we need to free ourselves of the power of a well formed lie. Framing believable lies is a skill of politicians. Those without the skill of skeptical listening are helpless against lies.
I think Fox is a very biased source and treats minorities poorly as if they have no education. Ignorance and criticizm in the media is what’s stopping America from progressing.