Are Biased Media Bad for Democracy?

Wolton, Stephane

doi:10.1111/ajps.12424

Cited by 33 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Fudenberg and Levine (2019) model research designs, such as RD or difference-in-differences, in a model where information feedback affects effort that endogenously determines treatment. Other work, somewhat further afield, uses theory to think about how to optimally design treatments to maximize learning (Banerjee, Chassang, and Snowberg 2017; Chassang, Padró i Miquel and Snowberg 2012) or to question the normative or positive interpretation of well-identified empirical findings (Ashworth and Bueno de Mesquita 2014; Ashworth, Bueno de Mesquita, and Friedenberg 2018; Fowler 2018; Izzo, Dewan, and Wolton 2018; Prato and Wolton 2018; Sun and Tyson 2019; Wolton 2019).…”

Section: Relationship To Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Commensurability Problem: Conceptual Difficulties in Estimating the Effect of Behavior on Behavior

Mesquita

Tyson

2020

Am Polit Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We pose the commensurability problem: When do the estimates generated by actual research designs correspond to quantities of theoretical interest? We study this question in settings where both treatment and outcome are behavior and the treatment effect of interest is decomposable into direct and informational channels. We establish two results. First, the quantity estimated by an actual research design is only commensurate with the total effect in the ideal experiment if treatment status in the research design is a sufficient statistic for the decision-makers’ information. Second, a research design corresponding to a nonideal experiment isolates just the direct effect in the ideal experiment if two conditions hold: (i) there is no information effect in the nonideal experiment and (ii) the decision-maker’s response function is additively separable in treatment and information. We apply our results to three substantive literatures: the efficacy of protest, the empowerment of female candidates, and indiscriminate violence in counterinsurgency.

show abstract

Section: Relationship To Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Commensurability Problem: Conceptual Difficulties in Estimating the Effect of Behavior on Behavior

Mesquita

Tyson

2020

Am Polit Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Finally, attention is of course related to transparency (e.g., Prat, ; recent work by Andreottola, and Wolton, highlights the potentially welfare depressing effect of “too informative” media). My focus is on the attention choice from the voter's side of the problem, hence highlighting a different and unexplored channel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When the light shines too much: Rational inattention and pandering

Trombetta

2019

J Public Economic Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Should voters always pay attention to politics? I explore the role of endogenous costly attention allocation in politics, combining insights from the growing literature on rational inattention with a standard model of political agency. I show that when attention to the action of the politician is endogenous, voters may choose to pay too much attention in equilibrium, and this induces too much political pandering. Moreover when attention to the action and to the state of the world are both endogenous, voters may not pay enough attention the state with respect to the ex ante optimum. A reduction in the total cost of attention does not correct this inefficiency and can even reduce welfare. This model can be a demand-driven explanation of the under-provision of analytical contents by news channels.

show abstract

“…Bruns and Himmler (2016) consider a model in which the media outlet is a profit maximizer, showing that voters are willing to incentivize the media to report valuable information to hold politicians accountable. Politicians also respond to the media environment of a society (Wolton, 2019).…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Media with reputational concerns: yes men or watchdogs?

Sheen

2019

PSRM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the political process, the electorate needs to determine the competence of the government by both observing its policy decisions and acquiring information from the media. However, media reports are often criticized for not being independent and truthful. This paper discusses whether the public can determine the quality of a government from media reports. In other words, are media outlets more likely to act as watchdogs or just as “yes men” to the government? This paper argues that, because of reputational concerns, the media usually avoid criticizing the government. The media only report truthfully when the expected competence of the government is sufficiently low and the probability for the voter to learn from other information sources is sufficiently high. Otherwise, media outlets—especially low-quality outlets—will pander to the government in their reporting. Policy bias or media capture is not required for the yes-man problem to prevail.

show abstract

Are Biased Media Bad for Democracy?

Cited by 33 publications

References 56 publications

The Commensurability Problem: Conceptual Difficulties in Estimating the Effect of Behavior on Behavior

The Commensurability Problem: Conceptual Difficulties in Estimating the Effect of Behavior on Behavior

When the light shines too much: Rational inattention and pandering

Media with reputational concerns: yes men or watchdogs?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About