Exposure to Counterattitudinal News Coverage and the Timing of Voting Decisions

This article investigates the effects of counterattitudinal news coverage on the timing of voting decisions. It is hypothesized that especially citizens with uncertain prior attitudes delay their voting decisions when they are exposed to cross-cutting news coverage. Two studies provide evidence for this hypothesis, using panel data that are combined with an extensive content analysis of news media. There is also some evidence that counterattitudinal coverage accelerates voting decisions when people hold their campaign attitudes with high attitude certainty.