Why is Ben Carson surging? Once again, it’s the media.

[Commentary] The surge of support for Ben Carson is making some people curious. Howard Kurtz suggests Carson’s surge is “under the media radar.” That’s exactly backwards. Carson’s surge is arguably because he got back on the media’s radar. Even though Carson is not receiving a lot of news coverage, the trends in Carson’s polling numbers are easily understood as responses to trends in how much he’s covered in news -- much as is true of Donald Trump.

Again, it is possible that news coverage responds to poll numbers. Increasing polling numbers always make for horse-race coverage. But, as I’ve argued in the past, we should expect the news coverage to come first. People’s views about a candidate are likely to change only when the information they’re getting about that candidate changes. News coverage isn’t the sole source of information, but it’s an important one. Certainly being on the media’s radar has been crucial for Carson.

[John Sides is an Associate Professor of Political Science at George Washington University]