TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Schneider-Strawczynski, Sarah
AU  - Valette, Jérôme
        TI  - Media Coverage of Immigration and the Polarization of Attitudes
        PY  - 2023/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16681
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16681
        AB  - This paper investigates the effect of media coverage on immigration attitudes. It combines data on immigration coverage in French television with individual panel data from 2013 to 2017 that records respondents' preferred television channel and attitudes toward immigration. The analysis focuses on within-individual variations over time, addressing ideological self-selection into channels. We find that increased coverage of immigration polarizes attitudes, with initially moderate individuals becoming more likely to report extremely positive and negative attitudes. This polarization is mainly driven by an increase in the salience of immigration, which reactivates preexisting prejudices, rather than persuasion effects from biased news consumption.
        KW  - polarization
KW  - media
KW  - immigration
KW  - salience
        ER  -