The more frequently people read newspapers, the more stable their opinion is on government policy

How do variations in the consumption of media across Americans affect policy attitudes at the individual and aggregate levels? Tyler Johnson and Paul Kellstedt examine how newspaper readership and television viewership choices shape liberalism or conservatism towards spending decisions made by government from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s. They find that infrequent newspaper readers exhibit greater variance in opinion and, as a result, their opinions move in less parallel fashion over time compared to those who sometimes or always read newspapers. Television viewership rates, however, do not appear to affect opinion at the individual or aggregate level.