Zehua Li (APRW)
Date and Time
Location
Speaker & Title
Zehua Li, "Voices of America: Tracing National Media Influence in Grassroots Political Discourse"
Abstract
How do national media shape the narratives of grassroots political discourse? I study how national television influences issue framing at local school board meetings by exploiting the staggered removal of the far-right channel One America News (OAN) from major cable operators in 2022. By linking over 150,000 school board meeting comments to local OAN viewership, I find that losing access to OAN is associated with comments that are more civil and less aligned with the outlet’s narratives. But deplatforming far-right media also comes with downsides: Speakers were less likely to return to subsequent meetings after losing OAN access, whereas data from before OAN’s removal show that the more someone speaks up at public meetings, the more positive and less OAN-aligned their comments become. This suggests that sustained participation may itself have a moderating effect.
The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) meets all academic year, Tuesdays, 12:00–2:00 PM, in CGIS K354. This workshop presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.
All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend. Lunch will be provided.