Media Use and Perceptions of Welfare

Abstract

This study examines public perceptions of the characteristics of a typical welfare recipient and of welfare programs, and how these perceptions reflect differences in individuals' media use. The evidence shows that contextually poor, event-centered, and personalized media content use, represented by exposure and attention to television cable news, and entertainment shows, works in the direction of introducing typical biases in welfare perceptions: perception of welfare recipients as non-White, female, of younger age, and of higher federal spending on welfare programs. In contrast, watching more thematic television stories about welfare and poverty, as well as reading public affairs content in newspapers, has overall positive effects on the accuracy of perceptions of welfare. In turn, perceptions of welfare recipients and welfare programs affect individual's support for welfare programs.