Jessica Maki
Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She studies political communication, political socialization, and neuroscience. She has published peer-reviewed articles in outlets such as Journalism and Political Communication.
Email: jmaki5@wisc.edu
Prof. Michael W. Wagner
William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea and Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published articles in journals such as Science, Journal of Communication, and Political Communication.
Bluesky: @prowag.bsky.social
Email: mwagner8@wisc.edu
U.S. Election 2024
51. The powers that aren’t: News organizations and the 2024 election (Dr Nik Usher)
52. Newspaper presidential endorsements: Silence during consequential moment in history (Dr Kenneth Campbell)
53. Trump after news: a moral voice in an empty room? (Prof Matt Carlson, Prof Sue Robinson, Prof Seth C. Lewis)
54. Under media oligarchy: profit and power trumped democracy once again (Prof Victor Pickard)
55. The challenge of pro-democracy journalism (Prof Stephen D. Reese)
56. Grievance and animosity: Fracturing the digital news ecosystem (Dr Scott A. Eldridge II)
57. Considering the risk of attacks on journalists during the U.S. election (Dr Valerie Belair-Gagnon)
58. What can sentiment in cable news coverage tell us about the 2024 campaign? (Dr Gavin Ploger, Dr Stuart Soroka)
59. The case for happy election news: Why it matters and what stands in the way (Dr Ruth Palmer, Prof Stephanie Edgerly, Prof Emily K. Vraga)
60. Broadcast television use and the 2024 U.S. presidential election (Jessica Maki, Prof Michael W. Wagner)
61. Kamala Harris' representation in mainstream and Black media (Dr Miya Williams Fayne, Prof Danielle K. Brown)
62. Team Trump and the altercation at the Arlington military cemetery (Dr Natalie Jester)
63. Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media (Prof Michael L. Butterworth)
Despite the attention that cable television, digital news outlets, and social media receive in the era of our fragmented environment, broadcast television is still king. Concerns about how the fragmented media landscape is responsible for increasing political polarization abound, even though most people get their political information from traditional, mainstream sources like ABC, NBC, and CBS. In this essay, we describe differences between 1) broadcast news use as compared to cable news use, 2) those who consume both broadcast and cable outlets, 3) the intended vote choice for broadcast news viewers as compared to cable news viewers, and 4) political knowledge among those who watch network television and those who do not. Overall, we show that despite an increasingly fragmented media environment, more people use broadcast news than other television sources. Moreover, broadcast viewers were more supportive of Kamala Harris than Donald Trump and were more politically knowledgeable than those who avoided NBC, CBS, and ABC during the 2024 campaign season.
Changes to the U.S. information environment
In the mid 20th century, broadcast television news made political information accessible for the majority of Americans, even decreasing political knowledge gaps for viewers with less education or prior political knowledge. With limited options available on television, most citizens consumerd broadcast news, and thus, learned about national politics, from ABC, CBS or NBC. Network news audiences were at their peak in the 1970s and 1980s, both in terms of their audience sizes and the considerable level of trust Americans had in them.
However, the introduction of cable television and the internet began to peel way broadcast news audiences as individuals gained options for what to watch on television. Some consumers selected out of news altogether and turned toward pure entertainment, others began to watch partisan news outlets. The transition from a low-choice to a high-choice media environment has resulted in a highly fractured media environment. As such, political communication scholars have focused much of their attention on cable television news, digital news, and social media content about politics. While these are important and worthy areas of inquiry, it is important to continue to understand how the most-watched national political news source, broadcast television news, is associated with vote choice and political knowledge.
Descriptive analyses of broadcast news use and the 2024 presidential election
A Wisconsin Communication and Election Studies survey of 2,000 adults administered by YouGov one week prior to the 2024 U.S. presidential election found that 61.3 percent of respondents watched broadcast news during the election season, considerably more than the 49 percent who watched Fox News, 49 percent who watched CNN, and 42 percent who watched MSNBC at some point during the 2024 campaign season.
Of course, people consume more than one type of news as part of their political communication repertoires. 43 percent of adults watched broadcast news and CNN, 37 percent watched broadcast news and Fox News, and 38 percent watched broadcast news and MSNBC.
More than half (55.6 percent) of broadcast news viewers reported they would vote for Kamala Harris for president while 38 percent planned to vote for Donald Trump. Harris led among CNN viewers (61 percent) and MSNBC watchers (65 percent) while Trump was the favorite of Fox viewers (60 percent).
Considering broadcast viewers who also consumed cable television news, broadcast news viewing appears to have been a net benefit for Harris. While Trump captured 60 percent of Fox viewers, only 50 percent of Fox viewers who alsowatched broadcast news were planning to vote for Trump. This suggests that broadcast news viewing might serve as a moderating force for conservative television news viewers. Broadcast viewers who also watched CNN went for Harris 63 to 33 percent and MSNBC viewers who also watched a major network were for Harris 65 percent to 30 percent. This suggests that broadcast news use is not only a moderating source and may operate differently for more liberal viewers.
Broadcast news viewers were also more politically knowledgeable than those who did not watch broadcast news. Questions of facts related to ten political issues such as abortion, health care, Gaza, and immigration were more likely to be answered correctly by network television news viewers.
While Harris had the advantage from broadcast news viewers, Trump still won the election. This suggests that while it remains important to understand the effects that the most-used sources of political information have on vote choice and political knowledge, a comprehensive examination of the information environment—and of those who increasingly avoid political information—is necessary to fully explain the results of the 2024 presidential election.