Making Issues Matter: Local Media and Policy-Based Evaluations of Politicians

Does the media enhance issue accountability? Many argue it does by covering where politicians stand on policy. However, evidence of this process is limited and fails to address two alternatives. First, when informed about an issue by the media, people may change their own issue stance so it aligns with a politician they already support. Second, the public may ignore the news when it conflicts with party loyalty. We distinguish these alternatives using survey experiments and observational studies of local media and the public’s use of issues to evaluate their members of Congress from 2006 to 2022. Across these settings local news increases the public’s reliance on policy to evaluate politicians, affirming the media’s contribution to issue accountability despite heightened polarization. These studies also highlight a mechanism behind this, showing news primarily changes views of legislators by reducing widespread uncertainty about their policy positions.