Midwest Media Patterns by Partisanship and Political Engagement

Midwest Media Patterns by Partisanship and Political Engagement One major component of the work of the Midwest Foundation for Media Research has been analyzing the media consumption patterns of various sorts of citizens in Midwest media markets. We have mainly employed data from Scarborough Research. Scarborough is jointly owned by Nielsen (TV ratings) and Arbitron (radio ratings) and is the leading provider of syndicated consumer research at the local market level. Local newspapers, as well as television and radio stations, typically buy Scarborough data to help sell space and time to local and national advertisers of consumer products and services. Advertisers buy Scarborough data to better understand their target audiences and how to reach them through the media. Because they are in the local market measurement business, Scarborough has a very large sample. They interview about 220,000 American adults each year using a three-stage survey process of a telephone interview, a self-administered written survey, and a one-week television-viewing diary similar to the Nielsen diary. Some Scarborough respondents are paid to increase response rates to the lengthy questionnaire. Depending on the size of the local market, Scarborough provides annual new samples of 2,000 to 10,000 respondents in each of the country s largest 81 media markets. Along with self-administered consumer questions on a huge variety of consumer and personal behaviors are core political questions: (1) Are you registered? (2) How often do you vote in presidential, statewide, and local elections? (3) What is your party identification on a five-point scale? Combining information on personal characteristics and media habits with these political questions makes incredibly rich analysis possible. Using the Scarborough data, we examined eight Midwest designated market areas (DMAs) to examine media consumption patterns. Using the party index and influencer scores, we can compare television, radio, newspaper, and users, as well as examine the particular local, national, and cable consumption patterns of television viewers in particular. 1 Summary of Findings People receive news and information from four major sources: television, radio,, and newspapers. Within each of these modes of communication there are local, regional, and national sources. For 1 To simplify the analysis, we use a common consumer research tool: index scores. An index is a type of percentage that relates numbers to a base, with the base being 100. It can be used to quickly demonstrate what is average, above average, or below average. An index of 120 for Democrats would mean that Democrats are 20 percentage points more likely to be paying attention to a particular media source than Republicans. MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 1

example, within the television space, ABC News or CNN are national outlets while the 6 pm or 10 pm news on WISN or WTMJ are local outlets. Nationally, base Democrats use more television than base Republicans with certain programs or stations skewing more Democratic (MSNBC) or Republican (Fox News). At the national level, newspaper and radio usage behaviors are similar for both base Republicans and base Democrats. There are, however, significant market-to-market differences in patterns of television, newspaper, radio, and usage patterns and of the sorts of programs within each mode that people pay attention to. These differences have implications for our understanding of political media planning and media effects. Although, like Americans nationwide, Democrats in the Midwest are heavier overall users of television than are high-turnout Republicans or swing voters, there are differences in which programs party groups watch. Furthermore, at the market level, there are differences in patterns of use by type of media. Milwaukee In Milwaukee, heavy radio users are modestly Republican, but voter activity is only slightly above average. Heavy users are almost as GOP as radio listeners, but users are much more likely to rank high on the engagement and influence index. In Milwaukee, newspaper readers lean as Democratic as heavy and radio listeners lean Republican, but newspaper readers are far more politically active and influential. Heavy television viewers in Milwaukee lean heavily toward the Democrats, but their political activity hovers in the same range as radio, which leans GOP. Des Moines In Des Moines, heavy radio listeners lean toward the GOP only slightly, yet radio listeners rank only as average in terms of their political engagement and influence. On the other hand, heavy users in Des Moines tend to be slightly Republican, yet much more likely to be engaged in politics. Newspaper readers in Des Moines align themselves with Democrats slightly, but they tend to be very likely to vote (only barely less than users on the GOP side). Television viewers in the city skew heavily towards the Democrats, yet political engagement and likely influence among viewers tends to be only slightly higher than average. Cleveland Radio listeners in Cleveland tend to be split right down the middle of the ideological scale, and their engagement and influence rank is only slightly higher than average. users in Cleveland, on the other hand, lean heavily toward Republicans and are extremely engaged in politics. The city s newspaper readers lean towards the GOP, and with only slightly less voter intensity than users. Cleveland s television viewers tend to skew moderately towards Democrats, yet political engagement and influence among television viewers is average. Chicago 2 MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

In Chicago, the most committed radio listeners tend to skew slightly towards the Republican Party, and tend to participate in politics at a rate barely higher than average. Heavy users in Chicago are slightly more Republican than radio listeners, but score on the high end of the influence and engagement scale. Chicago newspaper readers don t lean to either side politically, but readers are very likely to vote. As with other markets, television viewers lean heavily towards the Democrats, but with only slightly higher than average voter intensity. Columbus Heavy radio listeners in Columbus are moderately Republican, but their political engagement is a shade below average. As is common with other cities, heavy users lean towards the GOP (slightly less than Columbus radio listeners), yet are extremely active in politics. Newspaper readers in Columbus are heavily GOP and very engaged (although slightly less likely than internet users). Television viewers in Columbus are moderately politically active and lean slightly Republican. Indianapolis In Indianapolis, the top quintile of radio listeners tends to be moderately Democratic, but only average in terms of political engagement and influence. users are heavily Republican and vote in large numbers. Committed newspaper readers in Indianapolis lean slightly GOP and are very engaged (although slightly less than users). Indianapolis television viewers tend to lean heavily towards Democrats, with average levels of political engagement and influence. Minneapolis-St. Paul The top quintile of radio listeners in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market tends to be moderately Republican, and participate in politics at levels only slightly greater than average. users lean slightly toward Republicans, yet are heavily active. While newspaper readers in Minneapolis-St. Paul tend not to favor either party, they are engaged in very high numbers (only slightly less than users). Television viewers not only lean heavily toward Democrats, but they are engaged in politics in higher numbers than any other market tested other than Des Moines (although still not at levels that can be considered much higher than average). Detroit Heavy Detroit radio listeners are very Republican, and only slightly more likely to vote than average. Detroit s users are also very Republican, but also very active (although slightly less active than users measured in the other markets). As in Minneapolis-St. Paul, newspaper readers tend to be right down the middle politically, although they participate in politics at high levels. Television viewers in Detroit heavily align with Democrats, and participate in average levels. Cross-Market Analysis: MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 3

When looking for large-scale trends among media markets, several themes stand out: Television viewership leans heavily towards Democrats in every media market except Des Moines. As one might expect, in every case tested, the heaviest users of media ranked average or higher-thanaverage in political engagement and influence. Media consumers in the lowest quintiles tend to vote at lower levels, while people who seek out news in the outlets discussed above tend to be rank higher on influence and engagement. This is especially true for users, who tended to be much more Republican in every market tested. users were also the group most likely to be engaged in politics in every market except Milwaukee, where newspaper readers are engaged at higher levels than consumers. Of all the mediums, newspaper readers are the most ideologically mixed. In the markets tested, three cities newspaper readers favored Democrats, two cities readers favored Republicans, and three cities readers were very close to being right in the middle. The top quintile of radio listeners favored Republicans in five of the eight markets. In two markets, radio listeners favored Republicans only slightly. Indianapolis was the only market in which radio favored Democrats. In every case, political intensity among radio listeners was not particularly high. Almost uniformly, radio listeners are engaged only marginally above the average. 4 MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

Figure 1 demonstrates the ideological leanings of each medium in each market tested (it does not address political engagement within those ideologies). Figure 1: Ideology by Medium Market Radio Television Newspaper Milwaukee Des Moines Cleveland Chicago Columbus Indianapolis Minn-St.Paul Detroit Neutral Light GOP Moderate GOP Heavy GOP Light Democrat Moderate Dem. Heavy Democrat Market Demographics by Sector Milwaukee For Republicans, the Fox News Channel is the most popular cable channel in the Milwaukee media market. It has a large viewership and the highest levels of political engagement and likely influence among Republican-leaning viewers (tied with the Golf Channel, which is only moderately GOP). Other Milwaukee channels with viewers that lean Republican are, in declining order of voter turnout, the Travel Channel, Fox Sports North, the History Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, TLC, TBS, the Speed Channel, and CMT. MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 5

Several Milwaukee cable television channels are bunched along the axis in-between ideologies. They include, in declining order of turnout, the National Geographic Channel, the Weather Channel, HGTV, the Food Network, the Disney Channel, and ABC Family. In Milwaukee, Democrats identify with a number of channels with the same intensity that Republicans identify with Fox News. MSNBC, CNBC, and CNN are all viewed heavily by Democrats, yet have smaller audiences and are engaged in politics at even higher levels than Fox News viewers. CNN viewers are slightly to the right of the other Democrat-dominant channels listed above, yet CNN s viewership in Milwaukee approximates that of Fox News. Comedy Central, Lifetime, Oxygen, Bravo, and E! all skew heavily towards the Democrats, yet for those channels, political engagement and likely influence is much lower. Other channels moderately favored by Democrats in Milwaukee are, in descending order of voter turnout, AMC, A&E, FX, Animal Planet, USA, Spike TV, TNT, VH1, and MTV. In Milwaukee, users trend towards Republicans. The website with the largest viewership, Google, is slightly favored by Republicans, with only slightly higher than average voter intensity. The second largest website, Yahoo!, is squarely in between ideologies, with a similar voter engagement as Google. The site for the city s largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, also sits in between ideologies, with higher voter turnout than Google or Yahoo!. For Republicans, FoxNews.com is the most favored website, with moderately higher than average voter intensity. Milwaukee Democrats favor MSNBC.com the most, with much higher voter activity than FoxNews.com on the right. ABCNews.com is also favored by Democrats, and boasts the highest voter intensity rating among Milwaukee websites. Sports Viewing Green Bay Packer fans in Milwaukee (the city s largest fan base) tend to slightly favor Republicans, although with only slightly higher than average voter influence. Milwaukee Brewer fans are more moderate, yet more politically active. Fans of Wisconsin Badger football and basketball tend to be politically moderate, yet very politically engaged. Fans of the Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette Golden Eagles tend to favor Democrats, with Marquette fans being the second most politically influential fan base in the city (behind viewers of men s tennis). Other sports that favor Milwaukee Republicans include NASCAR and the PGA Tour. Democrats most favored sport is University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers basketball, followed by tournament poker, Milwaukee Admirals hockey, women s tennis, and the LPGA Tour. Des Moines 6 MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

The overwhelming majority of cable television stations in Des Moines are viewed by moderates and Democrats. Fox News stands alone, far to the right of all other networks, with a large audience that is politically engaged (the next closest network to Fox News ideologically is the Noggin network, whose viewers turn out to vote in very low numbers). In Des Moines, bunched around the moderate axis line, in descending order of voter turnout, are ESPNews, ESPN, the Weather Channel, the National Geographic Channel, HGTV, the History Channel, and the Discovery Channel. MSNBC is the channel favored by most Democrats, although it is not viewed as fervently by Democrats as Fox News is by Republicans. Its viewers are engaged in large numbers, but MSNBC has a much lower viewership in Des Moines than Fox News. MSNBC is joined on the ideological scale by CNBC (similar viewership, higher voter turnout), Fine Living (very small viewership, slightly less active voters), CNN (large viewership, slightly less active voters), Oxygen, WE tv, and the Syfy network (all with small viewership and low voter turnout). Other channels moderately favored by Democrats are, in declining order of political engagement and influence, CNN Headline News, the Travel Channel, AMC, Bravo, A&E, the Food Network, Animal Planet, TNT, Lifetime, Comedy Central, TBS, and USA. users in Des Moines heavily favor Republicans. The website most favored by the GOP, FoxNews.com, is more than twice as popular among Republicans as MSNBC.com is among Democrats in Des Moines. Des Moines largest website, Google, slightly favors Republicans, while Yahoo! slightly favors Democrats. The city s largest newspaper website, DesMoinesRegister.com, is ideologically moderate, yet its readers are extremely politically active. Cleveland In Cleveland, cable television viewers skew towards Democrats, but only slightly. Fox News is the network most favored by Republicans, with a large viewership and moderate levels of political engagement. Other networks with viewers that lean GOP with less intensity than Fox News viewers include, in descending order of voter turnout, the NFL Network, the National Geographic Channel, ESPN2, the Golf Channel, Versus, the Weather Channel, the History Channel, ESPN, the Discovery Channel, the Game Show Network, and CMT. The only network firmly in-between ideologies in Cleveland is ABC Family, with the DIY Network favoring Democrats by only a shade. MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 7

Democratic voters in Cleveland favor Comedy Central most intensely, yet political engagement and likely influence among that network s voters is low (AMC is similar in both regards). MSNBC is favored heavily by Democrats, and its viewers are very politically active. CNBC is favored slightly by Democrats, but its voters are extremely involved more so than any network in Cleveland. Other networks in Cleveland favored by Democrats, in declining order of voter turnout, are CNN, CNN Headline News, TCM, the Travel Channel, TLC, the Food Network, A&E, E!, Animal Planet, TNT, TBS, the Disney Channel, USA, FX, Lifetime, the Cartoon Network, Syfy, MTV, Spike TV, and Nickelodeon. In Cleveland, ESPN.com not only surpasses FoxNews.com in Republican popularity, but has slightly more influential voters. Other sites favoring the GOP include FoxSports.com, Weather.com, CBSNews.com, ebay, Google, Amazon, AOL, WKYC.com, and Ohio.com. Democrats in Cleveland favor CNN.com, MSNBC.com, ABCNews.com, Cleveland.com, AllRoundCleveland.com, NewsNet5.com/WEWS.com, 19ActionNews.com, and MyFoxCleveland.com. Yahoo! sits in the ideological middle, with only average voter influence. Chicago While all television viewers in Chicago lean heavily towards Democrats, cable television viewers are evenly distributed between both parties. A number of cable networks in Chicago are heavily favored by Republicans. Fox News has the most intense GOP viewership, slightly beating out the Golf Channel (although Fox News boasts a much larger audience). Also viewed heavily by Republicans are FSN, ESPN2, Versus, and CMT. CNBC is slightly favored by Republicans, with extremely high voter turnout levels. Other networks moderately favored by Republicans include, in descending order of political engagement, ESPN Classic, the Travel Channel, Comcast SportsNet, TCM, AMC, the History Channel, ESPN, the Weather Channel, HGTV, USA, the Discovery Channel, the Disney Channel, and Speed. Networks in between ideologies in Chicago include National Geographic, DIY, TLC, A&E, TBS, the Food Network, TNT, and TruTV. The cable networks most favored by Democrats in Chicago include WE tv, SoapNet, VH1, Disney XD, Oxygen, and the Game Show Network yet in all those cases, viewership is low and political engagement is only slightly above or below average. 8 MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

In Chicago, MSNBC is only slightly favored by Democrats, yet boasts the highest political engagement of Democrat-leaning networks (it is grouped closely with Chicagoland Television News and the TV Guide network in both respects). CNN is more favored by Democrats, has a larger audience, and similar political engagement to MSNBC. Other cable networks moderately favored by Chicago Democrats, in descending order of voter turnout, are CNN Headline News, Bravo, Comedy Central, FX, Lifetime, E!, Animal Planet, Spike, the Cartoon Network, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, and MTV. users in Chicago lean heavily towards Republicans. Among GOP-favored websites, FoxNews.com is the most intensely favored, while ChicagoBusiness.com is the website with the most politically influential readers. The city s two largest websites, Google and Yahoo!, lean slightly Republican with only slightly higher than average voter intensity. Other GOP-leaning websites in Chicago include WTTW.com, ChicagoTribune.com, SouthtownStar.com, ESPN.com, Amazon, AOL, Weather.com, and ebay. Chicago Democrats favor MSNBC.com (with very high voter turnout), CNN.com, CBSNews.com, Citysearch, Post-Trib.com, MTV.com, and NBCChicago.com. Columbus The quintile analysis above shows Columbus television viewers lean slightly Republican. The cable television consumer analysis in Columbus produces a nearly identical result. For Republicans, Fox News is the most favored network, slightly outpacing FSN, the Golf Channel, and Versus. Aside from being the network most favored by the GOP, Fox News viewers are also the most likely to be politically active and influential among networks that favor Republicans. Other Columbus cable networks that moderately favor Republicans, in descending order of political engagement, are the Ohio News Network, the Travel Channel, HGTV, AMC, DIY, the Weather Channel, the History Channel, ESPN, the Discovery Channel, TLC, ESPN Classic, SoapNet, Noggin, TruTV, and Galavision. Networks in Columbus favored by both ideologies include, in descending order of voter turnout, A&E, FX, TBS, USA, TNT, the Disney Channel, and Spike TV. Cable networks in Columbus that most heavily favor Democrats also have below-average political engagement Nick at Nite, VH1, and the Game Show Network. MSNBC is heavily favored by Columbus Democrats, and also has extremely high political engagement among its viewers (although only a MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 9

moderately-sized audience). CNN has a larger audience than MSNBC, but is favored by Democrats slightly less and has slightly lower political engagement among its viewers. Other networks favored by Columbus Democrats are, in descending order of political engagement, CNN Headline News, Bravo, National Geographic, FX, the Food Network, Oxygen, Animal Planet, E!, WE tv, Comedy Central, Lifetime, Cartoon Network, ABC Family, Syfy, and Nickelodeon. Among networks favored by Democrats in Columbus, the majority fall between average and below-average levels of political engagement. Virtually all of the largest websites in Columbus are favored by Republicans: Google, 10TV.com, ebay, Amazon, Weather.com, Columbus Dispatch Online, TVGuide.com, and ESPN.com. The only large website favored by Democrats is Yahoo!, which has only slightly higher than average voter participation. Websites favored by Columbus Democrats include MSNBC.com, Ask.com, CBSNews.com, ABCNews.com, and CNN.com. Indianapolis Fox News is the most favored network by Indianapolis Republicans, and also has the highest political engagement among GOP-favored channels. The only network close to Fox News for enthusiasm among Republicans is DIY, which has a much smaller audience and lower voter turnout levels. Other networks slightly-to moderately favored by Republicans include, in descending order of political engagement, the Golf Channel, the Travel Channel, AMC, National Geographic, the History Channel, Speed, FSN, ESPN, HGTV, TLC, Hallmark, the Discovery Channel, ABC Family, E!, and Nick at Nite. Middle-of-the-road Indianapolis cable networks include ESPN2, Bravo, the Food Network, and TBS. Networks most favored by Indianapolis Democrats are SoapNet, Cartoon Network, and MTV (all with low voter turnout) CNN, and ESPN Classic (with high voter turnout). CNBC and MSNBC are both moderately favored by Indianapolis Democrats, but both have viewers with extremely high levels of political engagement. Other networks moderately favored by Indianapolis Democrats include, in descending order of political engagement, CNN Headline News, Versus, the Weather Channel, Animal Planet, Comedy Central, A&E, Oxygen, Syfy, USA, TNT, Lifetime, Spike TV, FX, the Disney Channel, CMT, the Cartoon Network, MTV, and VH1. 10 MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

Of networks favoring Democrats, 15 have near-average or below-average levels of political engagement and influence. Only two networks favored by Republicans are in the same range. Of the 27 websites surveyed in Indianapolis, 20 of them favored Republicans. FoxNews.com was by far the most popular site among GOP web users, followed by Fox59.com, Weather.com, WISHTV.com, ESPN.com, Amazon, Google, ebay, AOL, Yahoo!, and MTV. Favoring Democrats were Citysearch, CNN.com, CBSNews.com, ABCNews.com, and MSNBC.com. Sports Viewing Virtually all the major sports viewers in Indianapolis favor Republicans. Purdue basketball and football, Butler Bulldogs basketball, Indiana University basketball and football, Notre Dame football, and the Indianapolis Colts all skew towards Republicans, with the Colts having by far the largest viewership. Sports viewers that favor Democrats are much smaller in number and tend to watch sports normally associated with female athletes: WNBA basketball, Indiana University women s basketball, and women s tennis (although LPGA golf skews Republican). MLS soccer, PBA bowling, and fishing are also favored by Democratic viewers, and Indiana Pacers basketball is favored by Democrats by only a slight margin. Minneapolis-St. Paul Minneapolis-St. Paul television viewers lean heavily toward Democrats. Of the 43 networks tested, only six (13.9%) had a majority-republican audience (Fox News, FSN, ESPNews, Disney Channel, Speed, ABC Family, and Nickelodeon). In Minneapolis-St. Paul, MSNBC is the most favored network for Democrats, and ranks highest for political engagement and influence. MSNBC is more than twice as favored by Democrats as Republicans favor Fox News. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, CNN, CNBC, CNN Headline News, and the Fine Living network are all favored by liberals, and each one has viewership that is engaged at a higher rate than Fox News viewers. The most Democrat-favored networks in Minneapolis-St. Paul include TruTV, Bravo, ESPN Classic, TLC, Comedy Central, SoapNet, MTV, Lifetime, Animal Planet, National Geographic, USA, A&E, AMC, the Weather Channel, VH1, Discovery Health, and the History Channel. viewing in Minneapolis-St. Paul is more ideologically balanced than other markets tested. FoxNews.com is heavily favored by Republicans, while TwinCities.com (the St. Paul Pioneer Press) and MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 1 1

StarTribune.com are less favored by the GOP. ESPN.com, KARE11.com, AOL, and MyFoxTwincities.com are all favored by Republicans. TheOnion.com is also slightly favored by Republicans, but its readers are well below average political participants. Falling in-between ideologies are websites such as WCCO.com, Google, ebay, and Yahoo!. Favoring Democrats are MSNBC.com, ABCNews.com, Ask.com, My29TV.com, CNN.com, Amazon.com, and Weather.com. MTV.com is favored most by Minneapolis-St. Paul Democrats, but its readers political influence is the lowest measured of any website in any market. Sports Viewing While Minneapolis-St. Paul is the most Democrat-friendly market tested, the largest sports in Minneapolis trend towards Republicans. Most favored by GOP fans are the Minnesota Wild, NASCAR, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Vikings, and University of Minnesota hockey, football, and basketball. Despite residing in a neighboring state, the Green Bay Packers also register with a large fan base, skewing slightly Republican. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, Democrats favor the Minnesota Timberwolves, fishing, women s tennis, men s tennis, and the LPGA tour (whose viewers are extremely likely to be politically active.) Detroit In Detroit, more cable networks are favored by Democrats, but the networks that are preferred by Republicans tend to be active and influential in higher numbers. Fox News in Detroit is the most favored network by Republicans, with a large viewership and moderate levels of voter engagement and influence. The Golf Channel and Versus are slightly less favored by Republicans, and have much smaller viewerships. Other networks favored by Republicans include, in descending order of political engagement, FSN, National Geographic, ESPN2, the Weather Channel, the Travel Channel, ESPN, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, ESPNU, and Speed. A number of cable networks are clustered in-between ideologies in Detroit. Among these networks are, in descending order of political engagement, TCM, AMC, HGTV, E!, FX, USA, and the Disney Channel. In Detroit, MSNBC is favored by Democrats at a slightly less intense level than Fox News is preferred by Republicans, yet MSNBC s viewers are engaged and influential at a slightly higher level. CNBC, on the other hand, is only slightly favored by Democrats, but its viewers are engaged and influential at an 12 MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

extremely high level. In Detroit, the networks that are most popular with Democrats are also the networks that rank lowest in terms of engagement and influence SoapNet, WE tv, Boomerang, VH1, and MTV. Other networks favored by Detroit Democrats include, in descending order of political activity, CNN Headline News, ESPN Classic, ESPNews, Bravo, TV Land, A&E, TLC, DIY, TBS, the Game Show Network, Comedy Central, Spike, TruTV, the Food Network, ABC Family, Lifetime, and Nickelodeon. Of the 36 websites tested in Detroit, 25 of them were favored by Republicans. Additionally, the largest websites (Google and Yahoo!) both favored the GOP. The Republican column also includes MLB.com, FoxNews.com, NHL.com, ESPN.com, TheOaklandPress.com, MacombDaily.com, Weather.com, Freep.com (the Detroit Free Press), Detroit News Online, ClickOnDetroit.com, WXYZ.com, MyFoxDetroit.com, TV20Detroit, ebay, and AOL. Detroit websites favoring Democratic readers included ToledoBlade.com, CNN.com, ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com, DailyTribune.com, MSNBC.com, Ask.com, CareerBuilder, and MTV.com. The average number of readers for Democrat-favored websites in Detroit is significantly lower than Republicanfavored sites. Cross-Market Media Analysis Observations: Generally, networks favored by Republicans have viewers that rank higher in terms of political engagement and influence. For instance, in Cleveland, there were 16 networks tested that favored Republicans, yet only one fell in the below average to average political engagement category. Conversely, of the 30 networks favored by Democrats in Cleveland, 10 fell in the below average to average engagement and influence category. This wide disparity was present in Des Moines, Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis and Detroit. In Milwaukee, of the 14 networks tested that favored Republicans, three had low to average political engagement while six of the 21 networks that favored Democrats were in that category. In Minneapolis- St. Paul, only six networks were favored by the GOP, and three of them had low to average political engagement. In the same market, 35 networks were favored by Democrats, with 11 ranking low to average in terms of political engagement and influence. While Republican-preferred networks tend to rank higher on political engagement, certain Democratfavored channels have the most politically intense viewers. In every market, either MSNBC or CNBC had the highest levels of political engagement among viewers and often, by large margins (MSNBC was MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 1 3

strongly favored by Democrats in every market, while CNBC was favored by Republicans in Chicago only). In every case, Fox News is the network most favored by Republicans. In every market except Chicago and Detroit, Fox News has the highest voter turnout among GOP-favored networks (in Chicago, voter turnout is higher among CNBC viewers, and in Detroit, the Golf Channel has higher voter turnout than Fox News). As expected, networks generally considered to be catering to young people skew Democratic, but have very low voter turnout. In nearly every case, MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central have strong support among Democrats, but hover at the low to average voter turnout levels. Networks considered to be targeted exclusively towards women are almost universally favored by Democrats. Lifetime, Oxygen, WE tv, and SoapNet generally skew heavily to the Democrats, but almost always have low to average voter turnout. 14 MIDWEST MEDIA PATTERNS BY PARTISANSHIP AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT