Data and code for "The Electric Telegraph, News Coverage and Political Participation"

<div>This page provides the replication data and code for the paper "The Electric Telegraph, News Coverage, and Political Participation" (Journal of Economic History, 2025)<br></div><div><br></div><div>This paper uses newly digitized data on the growth of the telegraph network in America during 1840–1852 to study the impacts of the electric telegraph on national elections. Exploiting the expansion of the telegraph network in a difference-in-difference approach, I find that access to telegraphed news from Washington significantly increased voter turnout in national elections. Newspapers facilitated the dissemination of national news to local areas. Text analysis on historical newspapers shows that the improved access to news from Washington led local newspapers to cover more national political news, including coverage of Congress, the presidency, and sectional divisions involving slavery.</div><br><br><br>

本页面提供了论文《电报、新闻报道与政治参与》（The Electric Telegraph, News Coverage, and Political Participation）的复刻数据与代码，该论文发表于《经济史期刊》（Journal of Economic History）2025年刊。

本研究依托1840至1852年美国电报网络扩张的全新数字化数据集，考察电力电报对全国性选举的影响。本研究采用双重差分法（difference-in-difference）识别电报网络扩张的外生冲击，研究结果表明：能够获取来自华盛顿的电报新闻，显著提升了全国性选举的选民投票率。报纸在全国性新闻向地方区域的传播过程中发挥了重要的中介作用。对历史报纸的文本分析显示，随着获取华盛顿新闻的渠道得到改善，地方报纸会增加对全国性政治新闻的报道覆盖，涵盖国会动态、总统选举以及涉及奴隶制的区域分歧相关内容。