The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Television and Voter Turnout*
Open accessAbstract
I use variation across markets in the timing of television's introduction to identify its impact on voter turnout. The estimated effect is significantly negative, accounting for between a quarter and a half of the total decline in turnout since the 1950s. I argue that substitution away from other media with more political coverage provides a plausible mechanism linking television to voting. As evidence for this, I show that the entry of television in a market coincided with sharp drops in consumption of newspapers and radio, and in political knowledge as measured by election surveys. I also show that both the information and turnout effects were largest in off-year congressional elections, which receive extensive coverage in newspapers but little or no coverage on television.
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“it is estimated that the growth of television caused somewhere between 25% and 50% of the total decline in voter turnout from the 1950s through the 1970s (Gentzkow, 2006).”
From Stories in Action. (2022) · cites this paper as Gentzkow, 2006
Citations
Cites
The Myth of the Vanishing Voter
McDonald, M. P., & Popkin, S. L. (2001) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055400400134 · Cited by 448
Flagged first, then by citations
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- Gentzkow, Matthew, "Television and Voter Turnout," mimeo, University of Chicago, 2005. · DOI
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting
DellaVigna, S., & Kaplan, E. (2007) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/qjec.122.3.1187 · Cited by 1,602
“Expression (7) is easily interpretable.”
MethodSoap Operas and Fertility: Evidence from Brazil
Ferrara, E. L., Chong, A., & Duryea, S. (2012) · American Economic Journal: Applied Economics · doi:10.1257/app.4.4.1 · Cited by 1,453
What Drives Media Slant? Evidence from U.S. Daily NewspapersPreprint
Gentzkow, M., & Shapiro, J. M. (2006) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.947640 · Cited by 1,418
Self-citationFerraz, C., & Finan, F. (2008) · Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/qjec.2008.123.2.703 · Cited by 1,319
Does Flattening Government Improve Economic Performance
Li, P., Lu, Y., & Wang, J. (2015) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2638647 · Cited by 1,312
“To address the identification challenge, we control for differential trends in outcomes between PMC counties and non-PMC counties depending on the key determinants in the selection of PMC counties, a strategy used by Gentzkow (2006).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Gentzkow, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gentzkow, Matthew
- ORCID
- Gentzkow, Matthew
- Venue
- Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2006-08
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 931-972
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-4650
- OpenAlex
- W2133689495
- Cited by
- 842
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 52 · 2025: 55 · 2024: 69 · 2023: 62 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 53 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 37 · 2012: 26
- FWCI
- 77.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Communication › News Media Framing and Political Communication
- Keywords
- television, voter turnout, media substitution, political coverage, newspaper readership, radio listening, political knowledge, congressional elections, media influence on voters
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