Trump Voters and Partisan News: A Survey Experiment of Republicans and Media Frames

We conduct a survey experiment using mock news articles that vary in ideological predisposition and in the level of support for Donald Trump’s efforts to combat the Covid pandemic, targeting self-reported Republicans. We find evidence that in-party news can influence voting behavior and that neutral news can reduce opposition to out-party members. We did not find evidence that news consumers are more influenced by costly reporting. Instead, we find that Republican news consumers reduce their trust in the national news media when a conservative outlet is critical of Trump.