The culture wars Right-wing media and the salience of societal security in the 2024 elections
By Fred Vultee | The 2024 US election points to the political value of insecurity: a sense that mutually cherished cultural referents are in peril, fueled by a steady flow of episodic yet correlated news. This information does not have to be false; through repetition and salience, isolated events create an image of a country in peril and a leader-in-waiting prepared to rescue it. In a closely divided electorate, a well-oiled partisan press aimed at half of the voters has the edge over a traditional media system trying to reach all of them.