Media Agenda Against Bernie Sanders? Examining the Emotional Tone of US Political News Articles

Abstract

The emotional tone of news articles (N = 120) on Democratic Party primary candidates was examined to determine if the media has bias towards Bernie Sanders. Using the Dictionary of Affect (Whissell, 2009), article words (N = 115,569) in the first 60 days of 2020 were measured for their pleasantness, activation, and imagery by candidate - Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Mike Bloomberg. Significant differences between Bernie Sanders and the other candidates were found for article pleasantness (p = .000), article imagery (p = 0.003) and headline activation (p = 0.23). Articles written on Bernie Sanders were less pleasant and more active in tone, as well as being more abstract (low in imagery).