Thu, 12 May 2011
Press release made by The Royal Economics Society
The Royal Economics Society have made a press release of the results of a paper by Dr Fernanda de Leon entitled ‘The Tuesday Advantage of Candidates Endorsed by American Newspapers’. Full details can found on their website http://www.resconference.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=31 under: The Economics of Media and Sports, under the title of “Newspaper Endorsements on US Election Day Sway Swing Voters ”.
“Newspapers can sway swing voters by publishing their political endorsements on election day, the moment when readers are most open to political information and advice. That is the main finding of research by Fernanda Leite Lopez de Leon, presented at the Royal Economic Society’s 2011 annual conference. The author suggests that voters are more susceptible to political endorsements on election day than at any other time. While some newspapers publish endorsements a week in advance, those who publish on election day have a bigger effect, particularly when the voters are undecided and have not taken much interest up to that point. Consistent with this interpretation, the research findings are particularly strong for low-visibility races, such as the state senate, the state house and the US house of representatives, but not for gubernatorial races.”
“Newspapers can sway swing voters by publishing their political endorsements on election day, the moment when readers are most open to political information and advice. That is the main finding of research by Fernanda Leite Lopez de Leon, presented at the Royal Economic Society’s 2011 annual conference. The author suggests that voters are more susceptible to political endorsements on election day than at any other time. While some newspapers publish endorsements a week in advance, those who publish on election day have a bigger effect, particularly when the voters are undecided and have not taken much interest up to that point. Consistent with this interpretation, the research findings are particularly strong for low-visibility races, such as the state senate, the state house and the US house of representatives, but not for gubernatorial races.”
