Research Note: U.S. Senate Elections and Newspaper Competition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1992.13.0.363-368Abstract
The contextual factors that structure electoral contests affect election outcomes. This research examines the impact of one such factor, the existence of newspaper competition, on the closeness of election results for U.S. Senate elections, using county-level data. Using counties with cities over 50,000 in population, the study finds that additional daily newspapers in a county lead to closer elections. Controls for socio-economic factors are incorporated into the analysis. The possibility that the finding reflects a regional difference between the South and non-South is explored and rejected. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.References
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