Partisanship, Politics and Place: How Media Shape Perception of Rural America

Cultural  Political Communication 

From those on the right accusing the left of being out of touch with rural America to the left saying that the right was responsible for the divisive rhetoric further polarizing rural and urban communities — the term “rural America” was bandied about widely by politicians and pundits in the 2024 presidential election.

While traditional media research has focused on how news coverage shapes perceptions of racial, ethnic and religious groups, less is known about media’s role in influencing how people feel about others based on where they live. Extensive research has documented the increasing partisan hostility in American politics, but researchers from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications wanted to know specifically what predicts people’s feelings toward individuals living in rural parts of the U.S.

In an era of increasingly partisan media outlets catering to specific political and geographic audiences, Public Relations Associate Professor Jay Hmielowski and doctoral candidate Brittany Shaughnessy asked what factors color the way individuals view those from rural areas.

The team used Social Identity Theory, which suggests one’s world view is shaped by creating in-groups and out-groups based on certain traits, to explain how media consumption, political ideology, and geographic identity combine to shape how Americans view rural residents.

Drawing on the theory’s tenet that people generally favor their in-groups while besmirching out-groups, the researchers examined how different identities — political and geographic — influence attitudes toward rural Americans. Their study analyzed data from over 4,700 respondents to the 2020 American National Election Survey.

Predictably, people identifying as rural held the most positive views of their rural compatriots, while urban identifiers expressed less favorable attitudes, aligning with Social Identity Theory.

Political identity revealed similar patterns. Conservative media consumption and conservative political ideology both predicted a sunnier view of rural residents. However, when researchers controlled for political ideology, liberal media use showed no significant relationship to these attitudes.

The study’s most striking media-related finding revealed that conservative media’s influence on rural attitudes was actually the strongest among conservatives living in urban areas rather than rural ones. This suggests media portrayals may have their greatest impact when people lack direct experience with a group — a finding that aligns with previous research on media’s role in shaping social perceptions.

The researchers posit this may be because urban conservatives have less direct contact with rural residents and are, therefore, more influenced by media portrayals that reinforce their political in-group preferences.

“Throughout American history, researchers posit that there have been gaps in how rural and urban residents view the world,” write the researchers.

Recent studies have revealed geographic belief gaps between rural and urban residents on issues ranging from voting behaviors to trust in journalists. Social Identity Theory helps explain why these gaps persist — people tend to maintain positive self-perceptions by favoring their own group while viewing other groups more critically.

The findings have implications for understanding America’s growing geographic divides. As the researchers note, “This is not an issue unique to America. There is a growing divide across the globe between rural and urban residents.”

The study concludes that while partisan media and political beliefs play important roles in shaping views of rural residents, geographic identity remains a crucial factor in how people categorize themselves and others into in-groups and out-groups.

This suggests that straddling America’s urban–rural divide may require addressing both media portrayals and the fundamental psychological processes that dominate group-based biases.

The original article, “I’ve got friends in rural places: Examining predictors of people’s feelings about rural residents,” was published in the Journal of Rural Studies online on December 12, 2024.

 Authors: Jay Hmielowski and Brittany Shaughnessy.

 This summary was written by Gigi Marino.

Posted: January 16, 2025
Insights Categories: Cultural, Political Communication
Tagged as: Brittany Shaughnessy, Jay Hmielowski, Rural America, Social Identity Theory