Information Sources and the Coverage of Social Issues in Partisan Publications: A Content Analysis of 25 Years of the Progressive and the National Review

An extensive research literature concludes that, in the United States, mainstream media tend to present a remarkably narrow, homogenous and centrist conservative view of political life that tends to support maintenance of the status quo. This is often attributed to heavy media reliance on government officials, leaders of political groups, and large bureaucratic organization as routine, predictable sources of information. In this context, it is important to understand how explicitly partisan publications construct their accounts of public affairs that provide citizens with alternatives to this perspective proffered by the dominant media. A content analysis of 25 years of 2 of America's leading partisan magazines, the conservative National Review and the liberal Progressive, provides data that raise questions about the extent to which information sources do influence the partisanship of media content.