Table 2.
Three-stage least squares (3SLS) models to predict diversionary tweets (CJI) from threatening media coverage (Russia-Mueller; columns 1–3) and predicting suppression from diversionary tweets (columns 4–6) simultaneously.
| Dependent variable | CJI tweetst | NYTa | ABCa | Averageb | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | |
| Panel A: yesterday’s tweets predict today’s coveragec | ||||||
| NYT Russia/Muellert | 0.018 | |||||
| (0.006) p = 0.007 | ||||||
| ABC Russia/Muellert | 0.225 | |||||
| (0.190) p = 0.236 | ||||||
| Average Russia/Muellert | 0.293 | |||||
| (0.111) p = 0.009 | ||||||
| CJI tweetst−1 | o | o | o | −0.399 | −0.038 | −0.050 |
| (0.207) p = 0.054 | (0.018) p = 0.037 | (0.019) p = 0.010 | ||||
| N | 703 | 710 | 703 | 703 | 710 | 703 |
| Panel B: today’s tweets predict tomorrow’s coveragec | ||||||
| NYT Russia/Muellert | 0.012 | |||||
| (0.005) p = 0.009 | ||||||
| ABC Russia/Muellert | 0.220 | |||||
| (0.068) p = 0.001 | ||||||
| Average Russia/Muellert | 0.228 | |||||
| (0.060) p = 0.000 | ||||||
| CJI tweetst | o | o | o | −0.732 | −0.090 | −0.094 |
| (0.620) p = 0.238 | (0.054) p = 0.095 | (0.057) p = 0.099 | ||||
| N | 702 | 709 | 702 | 702 | 709 | 702 |
aCoverage of Russia-Mueller on day t (panel A) or day t + 1 (panel B).
bAverage of the standardized values of coverage of NYT and ABC.
cEach model included control variables for each week during the sampling period and long-term time trends as well as the appropriate number of lagged observations for the dependent variable (see “Methods”). Table entries are coefficients (standard errors).
oLagged predictor is shown only when of interest.