News Media’s Role in the Issue-Voting Process News Attention, Issue Proximity, and Vote Choice

Synthesizing research documenting the effects of news use on learning and evaluation of policy issues, this study explores the role of news media in the issue-voting process, which involves cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral elements. Data analysis from the 2008 American National Election Study (ANES) shows that news attention predicts issue importance, issue knowledge, and perception of closeness on issue positions for one presidential candidate over another, which relates to vote choice. Results also indicate that the role of news attention for issue voting tends to be stronger among political independents highly attentive to news media than for others.