The Department of Political Science will be hosting Professor Ernesto Calvo from The University of Maryland on Monday, April 7th. His research centers on the study of comparative political institutions, social media, political representation, and social networks. His work lies at the intersection of big data, survey experiments, and institutions. His website can be viewed HERE.

When: Monday, April 7th at 12:10PM

Where: SSC 125

He will be presenting his project "The Winner-Loser Gap in news consumption: What lost elections tell us about the demand for news”. 

Abstract: 

This article documents a digital winner-loser gap in news consumption when election results are reported to the public. We explain this gap as the result of news-seeking and news-avoidance behavior, with important amplification consequences in disseminating partisan narratives and polarizing content. We examine Brazilian voters’ news consumption patterns before, during, and after the 2022 presidential runoff won by President Lula da Silva. We analyze 2.5 million digital trace events from 1,714 survey respondents’ smartphones and computers when the election results were reported to the public. Using a robust interrupted time series design, we show increased consumption among winners compared to losers, with changes in the partisan shares of articles accessed, browsing speed, and reading time. We then analyze the sensitivity of the winner-loser gap to partisan, social, and attitudinal variables.