Chapter 23 Exercises: The Media Ecosystem and Political Information

These exercises develop analytical skills in media consumption measurement, ecosystem mapping, and the critical evaluation of information environment data. Exercises progress from foundational analysis to original investigation.

Exercise 23.1: Media Consumption Profile Analysis

Estimated time: 45 minutes | Difficulty: Introductory

Background

The Pew Research Center's American News Pathways project has tracked how Americans consume news across platforms since 2016. This exercise uses simulated Pew-style consumption data.

Data

Consider the following simulated media consumption profiles for five voters in a competitive Senate district:

Tasks

Part A: For each voter, describe the likely information environment they inhabit. What types of political stories are they most likely to encounter? What stories are they most likely to miss?

Part B: Which voters are most likely to have been exposed to partisan reinforcement effects? Explain your reasoning using the research literature on partisan media effects.

Part C: Voter C and Voter E are both watching local TV news as their primary source, but the research suggests they may have very different information environments. What additional data would you need to distinguish their likely exposure, and why does it matter?

Part D: A campaign is planning a persuasion-focused advertising strategy in this district. Based on media consumption patterns alone, which voters are most likely to be reachable through television advertising? Through digital advertising? Through neither?

Exercise 23.2: Building a Local News Desert Map

Estimated time: 60 minutes | Difficulty: Intermediate

Background

The Local News Initiative at Northwestern University and Poynter's news outlet database track the presence and absence of local journalism across US counties. This exercise asks you to analyze the political consequences of local news deserts using the research literature.

Scenario

You are advising a voter protection advocacy organization in a state with three types of counties:

• Type 1 (40 counties): At least one daily newspaper with a newsroom of 5+ journalists; local TV news affiliate present.
• Type 2 (22 counties): Weekly newspaper only; no TV news affiliate.
• Type 3 (18 counties): No newspaper; information environment consists of social media, Facebook groups, and statewide TV news coverage.

Tasks

Part A: Using the research discussed in the chapter (Gao, Lee, and Murphy 2018; Rubado and Jennings 2020), develop specific predictions about how local election outcomes will differ across these three county types. What specific outcomes should you expect to differ, and in what direction?

Part B: The organization wants to improve civic engagement in Type 3 counties. Based on the chapter's discussion, critique the following three proposed interventions: 1. Funding a digital news startup to cover Type 3 counties 2. Distributing printed fact sheets about candidates through community organizations 3. Running digital advertising campaigns about the importance of voting

For each intervention, identify what the local news research suggests about its likely effectiveness and limitations.

Part C: What data would you collect to evaluate whether any of these interventions was effective? Design a simple pre/post evaluation framework.

Exercise 23.3: Filter Bubble Audit

Estimated time: 45 minutes | Difficulty: Intermediate

Background

This exercise asks you to apply the empirical debates about filter bubbles to a specific case.

Tasks

Part A: Pariser's filter bubble thesis and Bakshy et al.'s empirical pushback make different predictions about media consumption patterns. Complete the following table:

Part B: Choose a news story from this week. Track how the same event is covered by: (1) a conservative outlet, (2) a liberal outlet, and (3) a mainstream national newspaper. For each coverage instance, identify: headline framing, which facts are included vs. omitted, whose voices are quoted, and the implicit explanation offered for the event. What do the differences tell you about how ideologically distinct information environments would interpret this event?

Part C: A colleague argues that "filter bubbles don't exist because most Americans see cross-cutting content on Facebook." Evaluate this argument using the chapter's discussion of the filter bubble debate. What is the colleague getting right? What important nuances is the colleague missing?

Exercise 23.4: Social Listening Analysis Design

Estimated time: 60 minutes | Difficulty: Intermediate-Advanced

Scenario

You are building a media monitoring program for a state-level advocacy organization working on criminal justice reform. The organization wants to understand how criminal justice issues are being discussed in your state's media ecosystem.

Tasks

Part A: Query design. Design the keyword and hashtag query set for your social listening monitoring. Your query should capture relevant content without generating excessive noise. For each query element, explain what it is designed to capture and any known limitations.

Part B: Platform selection. Which social media platforms will you monitor, and why? For each platform you include, identify the specific type of insight it provides that other platforms cannot. For any platform you exclude, explain why.

Part C: Measurement metrics. List five specific metrics you will track and explain what each is designed to reveal about the information environment. For each metric, identify one important limitation or source of measurement error.

Part D: Bias audit. Following ODA's practice of documenting what their dashboard does not measure, write a brief "coverage gaps" statement for your monitoring program. What communities' political information environments will your monitoring systematically miss, and what are the implications for interpreting your data?

Exercise 23.5: Knowledge Gap Analysis

Estimated time: 30 minutes | Difficulty: Introductory

Tasks

Part A: The knowledge gap hypothesis predicts that new information in the media environment will increase rather than decrease knowledge inequality. Give two specific examples from the contemporary digital media environment where this prediction appears to be confirmed, and one example where it appears to be disconfirmed.

Part B: A social media company proposes that its platform reduces the knowledge gap because it democratizes information access—anyone can read the same articles for free that used to require newspaper subscriptions. Evaluate this argument using the knowledge gap framework. What does the hypothesis predict about the uptake and use of this democratized information?

Part C: What three variables, beyond education, would you use to predict an individual's level of political knowledge? For each variable, explain the causal mechanism linking it to political knowledge.

Exercise 23.6: Media Ecosystem Analysis Memo

Estimated time: 90 minutes | Difficulty: Advanced

Instructions

Drawing on the concepts and tools from this chapter, write a 600-800 word media ecosystem analysis memo for a hypothetical political campaign running in your home state or city. The memo should:

1. Characterize the local media ecosystem: what traditional media outlets exist, which have significant audiences, and what types of local journalism they provide
2. Identify any significant local news desert concerns
3. Describe the primary digital and social media platforms through which your target voters receive political information
4. Recommend three specific media monitoring approaches the campaign should implement, with justification
5. Note at least two information environment gaps that the monitoring approach will not capture

Write the memo in professional campaign analyst style—concrete, specific, and action-oriented rather than academic.