Mass Media and Political Extremism

Does exposure to partisan media drive radicalization? Is this radicalization amplified by local income inequality? This study explores how Fox News, the leading conservative media brand in the U.S., affects right-wing extremist behavior, and how local income inequality interacts with the effect of Fox News on extremism. We assemble a novel, comprehensive database on right-wing extremism across the U.S. since 1990, including hate crimes, the formation and spread of hate groups, the use of a neo-Nazi web forum, and other actions espousing hate. We propose using the instrumental variable approach to estimate the causal effect of Fox News viewership on our measures of extremism. We exploit the relative channel position as an exogenous shifter of local consumption of Fox News. The results can shed light on the question of whether the growing extremist threat is being amplified by a more polarized media environment.