All the News That’s Fit to Click: The Economics of Clickbait Media

Munger, Kevin

doi:10.1080/10584609.2019.1687626

Cited by 92 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…2 While such partisan media coverage exists on the Internet (e.g., Lelkes, Sood, and Iyengar 2017), online partisan media face economic considerations that push them away from only providing reputation-consistent political news attacking the other side (Gentzkow and Shapiro 2011;Hindman 2018, Ch. 4;Munger 2020). This introduces important and understudied variety into online partisan news that contrasts with the reputations of these outlets.…”

Section: A Disconnect Between Media Reputation and Online News Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, the pursuit of a large audience leads major online media, including partisan sources, to bundle political news with substantial amounts of nonpolitical coverage (Hindman 2018;Munger 2020). This is clear from the home pages of partisan websites that feature tabs for "entertainment" or "lifestyle" coverage (Fox News) and "culture and arts" or "travel" news (Huffington Post).…”

Section: A Disconnect Between Media Reputation and Online News Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%

“…When focusing on online news, this oppositional media hostility is puzzling. In contrast to cable television (Berry and Sobieraj 2013;Mutz 2015), economic pressure leads online partisan media to bundle political coverage with substantial amounts of nonpolitical news (Hindman 2018;Munger 2020) and constrains their ability to inject ideological slant into much of their political coverage (Gentzkow and Shapiro 2011). Content analysis of online news finds modest differences in the perceived slant of the typical political story from major partisan outlets, a departure from the "outrage" typically associated with them (Budak, Goel, and Rao 2016;Peterson, Goel, and Iyengar 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

When Unfamiliarity Breeds Contempt: How Partisan Selective Exposure Sustains Oppositional Media Hostility

Peterson

Kagalwala

2021

Am Polit Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Partisans hold unfavorable views of media they associate with the other party. They also avoid out-party news sources. We link these developments and argue that partisans assess out-party media based on negative and inaccurate stereotypes. This means cross-cutting exposure that challenges these misperceptions can improve assessments of out-party media. To support this argument, we use survey-linked web browsing data to show that the public has hostile views of out-party news sources they rarely encounter. We conduct three survey experiments that demonstrate cross-cutting exposure to nonpolitical or neutral political stories, forms of news widely available from online partisan sources, reduces oppositional media hostility. This explains how perceptions of rampant bias from out-party media coexist with more modest differences in the online content of major partisan news outlets. More broadly, we illustrate how negative misperceptions can sustain animus towards an out-group when people avoid encounters with them.

show abstract

Section: A Disconnect Between Media Reputation and Online News Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Disconnect Between Media Reputation and Online News Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

When Unfamiliarity Breeds Contempt: How Partisan Selective Exposure Sustains Oppositional Media Hostility

Peterson

Kagalwala

2021

Am Polit Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While established media are key information sources, the ease of entry into the digital media landscape has greatly expanded the number of relevant political news options (Munger 2020, Pennycook and Rand 2019, Hindman 2008, Metzger et al 2003. The array of media the public can now encounter far exceeds the number of sources they are aware of.…”

Section: Unfamiliarity As An Element Of Media Reputationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The 20th century media landscape centered on print and television media and was characterized by high costs of entry for news producers and a limited set of choices for news consumers (Mutz and Martin 2001, Hamilton 2004, Prior 2007). In the Internet era, these barriers to entry and constraints on choice have fallen away, resulting in a massive expansion in the number of accessible news sources (Munger 2020, Pennycook and Rand 2019, Van Aelst et al 2017, Hindman 2008, Metzger et al 2003. The public can now see political coverage from a vast array of media-local, national, even foreign news outlets-many of which they are unfamiliar with.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Unknown Media on Public Opinion: Evidence from Local and Foreign News Sources

Peterson¹,

Allamong²

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the Internet era people can encounter a vast array of political news outlets, many of which they are unfamiliar with. These unknown media outlets are notable because they represent potential sources of misinformation and coverage with a distinctive slant. We use a large survey experiment to consider how source familiarity influences political communication. While this demonstrates the public is averse to consuming news from unfamiliar media, we show that—conditional on exposure to them—unknown local and foreign media sources can influence public opinion to an extent similar to established mainstream news outlets on the same issues. This comparable effectiveness stems from the public’s charitable evaluations of the credibility of unfamiliar news sources and their relatively low trust in familiar mainstream media. We find avoidance of unknown news outlets, not resistance to their coverage, is the key factor limiting their political influence.

show abstract

The business of news in the AI economy

Sjøvaag

2024

AI Magazine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article considers the impact of AI on the economy and financing of journalism organizations. AI has structural implications on the news media beyond the practice of journalism and the management of news as a process. AI also shifts the premises of competition, competitive advantage, mergers and acquisitions, and IT capabilities in the news industries. Not least, it fundamentally challenges journalism's traditional business model. Considered hereunder is the two‐sided market model, journalism's traditional platform function, its network effects, and its public good characteristics. The aim of the article is, thus, to reconceptualize core economic features of the news industries in the context of AI to provide a vocabulary with which to assess the economic future of journalism in a data‐driven platform economy.

show abstract

All the News That’s Fit to Click: The Economics of Clickbait Media

Cited by 92 publications

References 29 publications

When Unfamiliarity Breeds Contempt: How Partisan Selective Exposure Sustains Oppositional Media Hostility

When Unfamiliarity Breeds Contempt: How Partisan Selective Exposure Sustains Oppositional Media Hostility

The Influence of Unknown Media on Public Opinion: Evidence from Local and Foreign News Sources

The business of news in the AI economy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About