Do you think that people's political outlook correlates with the media they choose ?

[KurtNYC]

And if it does, then why? Which is the chicken and which is the egg -- either they seek media they agree with, or they come to agree with the media they attend to most frequently.

I am asking for you to generalize, which is of course never accurate in all specific cases (but hey, it's fun). I think many have limited access to media -- the armed forces, children, some seniors, those who's eyes will no longer let them read and so may be limited to radio or TV. These groups in addition to those who have pretty much their pick of what to attend to. While driving across the country there were many places where the only radio I could get was evangelical or C&W -- no NPR, etc. No real range of views.

In this question I am also wondering about your views on whether the generational views we see in polling data, showing that younger people get their "news" from the Daily Show, versus older people who point to The Today Show (most watched news programming in the USA, btw) or Fox. And then you see significant differences in opinions on race, religion, homosexuality, and other major issues, between old and young. And even with that general trend, you have demographic groups like "South Park Republicans" (who distrust Repubs but HATE liberals) emerging as groups like "Soccer Moms" fade.

[ZombieHorde]

1. TV = "People seek out media that panders to the politcal leanings they already have."

Radio = "People are strongly influenced by media they are circumstantially exposed to"

This is my guess.

[JackRiddler]

2. People on this site are obviously seeking out the media that corresponds to their views, and...

that is also true of most blog and board readers (left, right, or off the spectrum) but most Americans aren't seeking out news media. They are exposed to whatever they happen to be exposed in the course of their day, while shopping driving channel hopping walking and working, and often don't wonder about its political content (since most of it claims to be "neutral" and "objective" or just gets spewed out of NBC, FOX, Yahoo, supermarket stands, etc.). So you can bet people hear all kinds of lowbrow propaganda without thinking to question it, merely absorbing it. And so they know about Tiger Woods or some dumb fuckers that ate 70 hot dogs on the 4th of July, or that "dead people got stimulus checks," but they don't know about drone strikes in Pakistan or the Citizens United decision.

[bemildred]

3. I don't watch TV.

Everything I read is something I sought out.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. The subject claims to be 'the media' but it is really just 'news and

opinion' electronic media that you mean. I have trouble with that. Which is the actual question? Do you want to know about 'media' or about how people select news based media outlets in the TV and radio market subsets of 'the media'?

[dimbear]

5. Ask yourself this: what are the politics of people who live where

there is only AM radio? Statistically speaking, of course.