Local News Media and Voter Turnout |
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Authors: | Martin Baekgaard Carsten Jensen Peter B. Mortensen Søren Serritzlew |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, DenmarkMartinB@ps.au.dk;3. Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark |
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Abstract: | A reasonably high turnout is a quality of a local democracy. In this article, we investigate whether media coverage of politics leads to increased or decreased voter turnout. Based on a unique data set, our analysis shows that local news media coverage has a positive effect on voter turnout, but only if the news media provide politically relevant information to the voters and only at local elections. Both findings are in accordance with the Information Model, which states that rising levels of political relevant information increases the probability of voting. |
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Keywords: | Voter turnout media coverage local democracy Denmark Information Model |
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