Abstract:

The premise of the economic voting hypothesis is that citizens vote for the government if the national economy is doing well; otherwise, they vote against it. It is argued that citizens learn about the state of the national economy mainly from the media. Yet, only few studies of economic voting include empirical analyses of the media's role in it. Even a smaller number of studies analyze the electoral impact of the real economy and of the way the media present it. The models in this study include both, objective economic indicators and media representation of the economy, based on a media content analysis of Israeli elections. The results support the importance of combining objective economic indicators and media variables. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]