The Fox News Effect

THE FOX NEWS EFFECT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Richard Morin]
A brief look at a study that suggests that the Fox News Channel does convince some to vote Republican -- and how that changed the outcome of the 2000 Presidential election. Also... Do people apply a political litmus test to the news? Yes, suggest the results of the latest online experiment by The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com and Stanford University's political communication lab. The test found Republicans preferred to get their news from Fox -- even when the news stories were about subjects far removed from politics, such as sports or travel. On the other hand, Democrats avoided Fox when it came to political news and preferred National Public Radio and CNN. And when the news focused on controversial issues such as the Iraq war and politics, "partisans are especially likely to screen out sources they consider opposed to their political views," said Stanford professor Shanto Iyengar, director of the communication lab.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR200605...
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