The Hostile Audience: The Effect of Access to Broadband Internet on Partisan Affect

TLDR

Media choice has exploded over the last two decades, raising concerns that self‑selection may lead to either apathy or heightened polarization. The study examines whether broadband Internet access fuels partisan hostility. By exploiting state right‑of‑way regulation differences, the authors merge regulation, broadband penetration, and survey data to assess the impact of broadband availability on affective polarization. They find that broadband access increases partisan hostility, a stable effect across years and political interest, and that it also boosts partisans’ consumption of partisan media, likely driving polarization.

Abstract

Over the last two decades, as the number of media choices available to consumers has exploded, so too have worries over self‐selection into media audiences. Some fear greater apathy, others heightened polarization. In this article, we shed light on the latter possibility. We identify the impact of access to broadband Internet on affective polarization by exploiting differences in broadband availability brought about by variation in state right‐of‐way regulations (ROW). We merge state‐level regulation data with county‐level broadband penetration data and a large‐N sample of survey data from 2004 to 2008 and find that access to broadband Internet increases partisan hostility. The effect occurs in both years and is stable across levels of political interest. We also find that access to broadband Internet boosts partisans' consumption of partisan media, a likely cause of increased polarization.