Since the election of Obama in 2008, Americans have become increasingly polarized about racial issues. At the same time, Americans have also become more polarized in their news media viewing habits. In the wake of horrifying events like the racially motivated mass murder in a Charleston church, some have connected these trends; Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 3/19/15), for example, criticized Fox News for ignoring the reality of systemic racism.

Is there any merit to such criticisms? Do media and racial polarization reinforce each other? Is there a connection between news media viewing habits and attitudes about racial equality? Based on an analysis of the American National Election Studies 2012 dataset, we find that white respondents who regularly watch Fox News are more likely to express attitudes of symbolic racism and racial resentment. This is especially true of those Fox News viewers who live in the South.

One common expression of racial resentment is the stereotype that black people have disproportionate influence over the levers of power. Though people of color are far more likely to live under an unrepresentative city council and have far less influence over policy, many racist whites wrongly think that government disproportionately benefits non-whites through social programs.

Our analysis suggests that regular Fox News viewers are more likely to hold such opinions, even after controlling for other factors such as individual race, age, income, education, partisanship, ideology, religiosity and geography. In the graph below, we compare conservative white Republicans who watch Fox News regularly to those who do not. The results show that regular Fox News viewers are significantly more likely to think that blacks have too much political influence. Those Fox News viewers who live in the South are the most likely to hold such attitudes.

The graph indicates that watching Fox News makes a non-Southerner just as likely to think blacks have too much political power as a Southerner who doesn’t watch Fox News regularly. These findings give credence to the idea that Fox News coverage that stokes such racist mythologies (see, e.g., Extra!, 9/13) may indeed be reinforcing negative racial stereotypes.

Increasingly, racism hides behind an ideology of “colorblindness,” a phenomenon sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva discusses in his book Racism Without Racists. ANES has several questions that can help identify such colorblind racism. One asks respondents whether “it’s really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites.” The graph below shows that Republicans are significantly more likely to agree with this statement compared to Democratic partisans.

Among those who watch Fox News regularly, the same pattern holds, but with an additional twist. Democrats who watch Fox News regularly are far more likely to agree that blacks must work harder than Democrats who do not watch Fox News. In fact, their views become indistinguishable from those of Republicans are who do not watch Fox News.

In another assessment of whether respondents view structural racism as a barrier to black upward mobility, respondents are asked if they agree that “Irish, Italians, Jewish and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without any special favors.” Here, being a regular viewer of Fox News significantly predicts an affirmative response.

Controlling for other important factors, Fox News viewers are much less likely to agree that structural racism is a barrier to black upward mobility. Fox News viewers are also more likely to disagree that “generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class,” and less likely to agree that “’over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve.”

In total, of the 10 racially related variables examined, five showed a statistically significant Fox News effect. While Fox News viewership appears to influence views related to racial resentment, the effects on perceptions of discrimination, and stereotypes about intelligence and work ethic, are not statistically significant: Fox News didn’t predict whether respondents think discrimination against blacks is still a problem, or whether they stereotyped black people as unintelligent.

Indeed, there was no Fox News effect across the entire battery of variables that measure overt racial stereotyping (Hispanic/Latino, Asian and black). This is consistent with other research that suggests that racism in America today consists less of overt racial stereotyping (i.e., black people are unintelligent) and more of racial resentment (i.e., black people need to work harder to be as successful as whites). This could make discourse about racism difficult, as progressives and conservatives adopt different ideas about how racism shapes American society.

Because of the recent waves of Islamophobic violence and heated rhetoric on the right, we were curious about the possibility that Fox News stoked these tensions. Republicans who watch Fox News regularly, compared to other Republicans, are slightly (but statistically significantly) more likely to say that “violent” describes Muslims well. Democrats who watch Fox News regularly are dramatically more likely to say that “violent” describes Muslims well than other Democrats. In fact, Democrats and Republicans who watch Fox News regularly are equally likely to say that violent describes Muslims well. This result is stunning, and repeats what we saw above: Watching Fox News may be a stronger indicator of bias on some racial issues than than party affiliation.

Does Fox News attract racist viewers, or is there something about Fox News that makes their viewers more racist? Or is there some other factor that isn’t examined here driving both trends? Although it’s impossible to say definitively, we can find clues in previous research.

First, studies find that Fox News viewers do seem to have views that are different from the general viewing population–tending to underestimate casualties in Iraq, for example. Other research suggests that some of the issues Fox viewers diverge on relate directly to racial issues. A study of the proposed NYC “Ground Zero” mosque suggests that those who relied heavily on Fox for their news were more likely to believe false rumors about the cultural center and mosque—for example, that the imam who supported it was a terrorist sympathizer.

A 2010 report found that those who watched Fox News “almost daily” were 31 percentage points more likely to believe that “it is not clear” that Obama was born in the United States. ANES also suggests that Fox News viewers (both Republican and Democrat) are significantly more likely to think Obama was not born in the United States than non-viewers.

In addition, one study has documented an independent Fox News effect: that Republican vote share increases when a town gains access to Fox News. If the channel can mobilize votes for the GOP, it seems reasonable that it might affect viewers’ racial perceptions. Two other academic studies find that Fox News has the power to influence policy. A 2012 study by political scientists Joshua Clifton and Ted Enamorado found that “representatives from districts where Fox News begins broadcasting become slightly more conservative” (and that the effect was strongest among Democrats). More recently, political scientists Kevin Arceneaux and his colleagues found that “Fox News caused both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to increase support for the Republican Party position on divisive votes,” though this effect was limited by electoral pressures.

Other studies suggest that media coverage can affect viewers’ attitudes about race: Research shows that local media coverage of crime that is heavily racialized increases anti-black attitudes among white viewers. The long history of race-baiting at Fox News raises suspicions that its coverage is indeed affecting its viewers’ racial attitudes. More research needs to be done, but it appears that Fox News‘ connection to racial polarization may be a powerful one.

Sean McElwee is a research associate at Demos. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMcElwee

Jason McDaniel is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. Follow him on twitter at @ValisJason

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