Democracy and Media
News Coverage of Democracy:
CDG researchers are currently exploring the extent to which people in the U.S. support news coverage of democracy and how news coverage of democracy circulates in state and local contexts.
Current Projects:
Muddiman, A., Scacco, J. M., Saffer, A., and Li, J. (2025). Guardians of Democracy? American’s Public Expectations of the Press & Democracy in Election 2024. Center for Sustainable Democracy. Public report available here.
Muddiman, A., Scacco, J. M., Saffer, A., & Li, J. (2025, September). Public support for news coverage of democratic processes. Manuscript presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Vancouver, Canada.
Muddiman, A., Koliba, C., & Appelman, A. (2026-2027). Local News Coverage of Policy and Democracy Narratives. Funding through the Research Excellence Initiative. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. University of Kansas.
Muddiman, A., Appelman, A. Andaloro, E., Boczkowski, L., Bell, D’A., Koliba, C. (2026, September). Constructing Democratic Divides: Villain-Victim-Hero Narratives in News Coverage. Manuscript to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Boston, MA.
Hostility and Polarization:
News coverage often emphasizes conflict when covering issues of public significance. Journalists are often trained to include conflict because it is central to storytelling, and some audiences find coverage of conflict entertaining. Yet when news emphasizes incivility, hostility, and other more extreme types of conflict, CDG researchers have found that intense conflict and incivility can decrease trust in news and amplify polarized and uncivil responses from news audiences.
Current Projects:
Muddiman, A., & Scacco, J. M. (2024). The influence of conflict news on audience digital engagement. Journalism Studies, 25, 278-298.
Muddiman, A. (2025-2026). Theorizing Misinformation in Political Television Coverage. Funding through the General Research Fund. University of Kansas.
Staats-Gibson, G., Muddiman, A., & Meeks, L. (forthcoming). Heartland news coverage of elections, policy, and identity. In Warner, B. R., Bystrom, D. G., McKinney, M. S., & Banwart, M. C. (Eds.), Democracy on the Line. Praeger.
Muddiman, A. (2025). Journalism and Polarization. Transformative Communication. Public report available: https://transformativecommunication.net/en/research-projects/depolarizing-public-debates/journalismus-und-polarisierung/
Brüggemann, M., Van Eck, C. W., Gelovani, S., Meyer, H., Muddiman, A., Pröschel, L., & Wessler, H. (2026). What kind of depolarization should we aim for? Making communication transformative. Political Communication, 1–8. A KU News article about this publication can be found here.