News priming and the changing economy: how economic news influences government evaluations

Abstract

It has recently been claimed that the economy does not exert strong influence on evaluations of incumbent governments in a globalized environment owing to the complex nature of the world's economy. We question this claim and examine whether and how exposure to economic news affects economic evaluations of governments and how these in turn affect overall government evaluations. The study, which is based on a two-wave national panel study in Denmark (N = 1,280) and a content analysis of the most prominent news outlets (N = 20,127), shows that we are not ready for a paradigm shift: The economy is still important in terms of predicting overall government evaluations, and exposure to economic news drives this relationship. In addition, priming is stronger for individuals who do not discuss the economy.