In Increasingly Diverse Texas, Political Analysis is Anything But
Seven Political Scientists Quoted 1,331 Times
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XECUTIVE
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UMMARY
Texas is a large and diverse state, yet you would not know that based on those who are most frequently asked to comment on the political landscape. According to 2013 U.S. Census data, men and women make up an almost equal population percentage, Whites make up 44% of the Texas population, with Hispanics comprising of 38% and Blacks 12%. Additionally, Texas is home to 104 institutions of higher education, many of whom employ multiple, if not dozens of, political scientists. Yet viewpoints are rarely considered from women or people of color.
In such a diverse state with such a wide network of political science professionals, why has the Texas media relied so heavily on the same homogenous set of political scientists?
Our analysis of Texas political news stories found that a small group of seven political scientists dominated media coverage during the key months before and after the 2014 midterm election. By examining newspapers, online reports, TV and radio stories, we discovered that the same seven political scientists were quoted 1,331 times from June 1 to December 31, 2014. Below is an overview of our analysis, why we examined them, and the data we found.
Cal Jillson Mark Jones Rottinghaus Allan Saxe Jerry Polinard Bob Stein Riddlesperger
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Our analysis began by conducting a comprehensive media search for Texas political scientist quotes in the month of October 2014. From simple Google searches to advanced media tracking using tools provided by
TV Eyes
and
Meltwater News
, we identified any instances of political scientists quoted in Texas press. After removing pollsters
–
whose analysis primarily revolved around the findings of their polling
–
we found that seven political scientists were routinely and almost exclusively quoted by Texas media.
Political Scientist School Location
Cal Jillson Southern Methodist University Dallas, Texas Mark Jones Rice University Houston, Texas Brandon Rottinghaus University of Houston Houston, Texas Allan Saxe University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, Texas Jerry Polinard University of Texas
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Pan American Edinburg, Texas Bob Stein Rice University Houston, Texas Jim Riddlesperger Texas Christian University Fort Worth, Texas As the chart above demonstrates, these seven political scientists all are geographically focused in only three areas of the state: Houston, the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, and the Rio Grande Valley. No professors in San Antonio, El Paso, Austin, West or East Texas made the cut. Beyond their physical location, all seven professors share common demographic characteristics. All are male, all are relatively older, and all share non-Hispanic surnames.
Political Scientist Gender
Cal Jillson Male Mark Jones Male Brandon Rottinghaus Male Allan Saxe Male Jerry Polinard Male Bob Stein Male Jim Riddlesperger Male
M
EDIA
A
NALYSIS
Once we narrowed down the list of political scientists to only those who regularly appeared in Texas media outlets, we used tracking provided by
Meltwater News
to examine how often each political scientist was quoted in print, radio, TV, or online publications. The runoff election for Texas primaries was on May 27, 2014. Election Day was on November 4, 2014, and we wanted to capture post-election analysis in the weeks that followed. All data is based on searches from June 1, 2014 through December 31, 2014. The search terms involved several variants of the
political scientists’
names, coupled with the affiliated school.
Individual Total Hits Duplicate Hits Original Quotes
Cal Jillson 590 399 191 Mark Jones 334 168 166 Brandon Rottinghaus 155 76 79 Allan Saxe 127 73 54 Jerry Polinard 49 n/a n/a Bob Stein 38 n/a n/a Jim Riddlesperger 38 n/a n/a
TOTAL 1,331 716 490
Three notes about our analysis: 1.
“Duplicate Hits” separates
identical, repeat quotes that appeared in multiple outlets from the total number of times the political scientist was quoted. 2.
The “Original Quotes” category accounts for
any single instance of a quote that appeared multiple times. 3.
Analysis for duplicate hits was only completed for individuals that generated over fifty unique hits for the 7-month period. Cal Jillson is far and away the most quoted political scientist in the state of Texas, commanding 44% of all media coverage among the 1,331 news stories examined.