How does selective exposure affect partisan polarisation? Media consumption on electoral campaigns

Abstract

Internationally-recognized studies have identified the effects of selective exposure to the media and its implications for the proper functioning of democratic systems. The theory of cognitive dissonance, by which citizens decide to expose to like-minded contents and reject inconsistent ones with their ideology or values, allows us in this article to test their possible effects on voting and increasingly partisan polarisation in west European political systems. To carry out it, through a sample of 5943 citizens (from the post-electoral survey of the 2019 General Elections of the Spanish national centre for sociological analysis), we have analysed how exposure to media affects vote choice, party affiliation and reject other parties. Through statistical analysis models, results demonstrate media consumption effects on partisan polarisation in electoral campaigns, especially in populist parties. Accordingly, this article provides empirical evidence that ideological affiliation to this kind of parties is highly influenced by a restrictive media diet (exposure to a very limited number of media, even a just one) with high-polarised content.