Threat Messages in the Partisan Media Environment and Job Performance Approval Under President Obama

Is the current partisan information environment cueing threat in its coverage of Barack Obama's presidency? When President Obama first took office, he entered a climate of support that was both bipartisan and ethnically diverse. Two months later, he held the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past forty years of polling research. Concurrently, support among whites began to decline while support among minority Americans remained strong. This paper investigates why job performance approval of President Obama became so immediately polarized among the U.S. electorate, in terms of both political ideology and race/ethnicity. Drawing from political communication and political psychology theory, the partisan information environment, specifically FOX News coverage from 2009, will be examined through content analysis for messages of threat. It is predicted that the psychological underpinnings of this content could have provoked an intolerant reaction among sections of the public, and that this reaction is reflected in poll data over the same period showing declining support among Right-leaning partisans and whites. The U.S. economy will also be examined during this timeframe, as an alternative and/or related explanation for the trends in support