The Effects of News Consumption on Emotions and Political Participation: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Abstract

We test the mediation hypothesis that consumption of campaign news has the potential to affect political participation, and that this effect can in part be explained by the emotions triggered by such news. Drawing on a two-wave pre- and post-election panel study in Delhi (India) in 2014, we identify significant indirect effects of campaign news on voter participation via anger and hope, but not via fear. Content analysis of newspapers and television news is used to explain the results. The current study fills the important theoretical gap and brings new empirical evidence to the literature on the effects of news consumption in triggering emotions and how this, in turn, mobilizes citizens and whether such mobilization is moderated by religious identity.