Sunlight Disinfects? Free Media in Weak Democracies

Fergusson, Leopoldo; Vargas, Juan F.; Vela, Mauricio A.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2229506

Cited by 31 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…4 Our findings also complement the literature examining the impact of the news media, as opposed to campaign advertising. Various studies have found that media coverage increases voter punishment of incumbent indiscretions in office (Fergusson, Vargas and Vela 2014;Ferraz and Finan 2008;Larreguy, Marshall and Snyder 2016). Using a similar design to ours, Enikolopov, Petrova and Zhuravskaya (2011) show that the introduction of an independent television station increases the vote share of opposition parties not supported by Russian state media.…”

Section: ; Lawson and Mccann 2005)supporting

confidence: 55%

Leveling the playing field: How campaign advertising can help non-dominant parties

Larreguy

Marshall

Snyder

2018

Journal of the European Economic Association

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Voters are often uncertain about and biased against non-dominant political parties. By reducing the information gap with dominant parties, political advertising may thus disproportionately benefit non-dominant parties electorally. We test this argument in Mexico, where three main parties dominate many localities. To identify the effects of exposure to partisan advertising, we exploit differences across neighboring precincts in campaign ad distributions arising from crossstate media coverage spillovers induced by a 2007 reform that equalized access to ad slots across all broadcast media. Our results show that ads on AM radio increase the vote shares of the PAN and PRD, but not the previously-hegemonic PRI. Consistent with our model, campaign advertising is most effective in poorly informed and politically uncompetitive electoral precincts, and against locally dominant parties of intermediate strength.

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Section: ; Lawson and Mccann 2005)supporting

confidence: 55%

Leveling the playing field: How campaign advertising can help non-dominant parties

Larreguy

Marshall

Snyder

2018

Journal of the European Economic Association

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“…7 Corneo (2006) and Petrova (2008) study media capture by interest groups. Fergusson et al (2013) show that, conversely, free media are no guarantee of political accountability when other institutions are weak, so that candidates can coerce voters into supporting them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Media Competition and Electoral Politics

Piolatto

Schuett

2013

SSRN Journal

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We build a framework linking competition in the media market to political participation, media slant, and selection of politicians. Media outlets report on the ability of candidates running for office and compete for audience through their choice of slant. Citizens derive utility from following a rule that maximises their group's welfare. The rule specifies whether to vote and consume news. Our results can reconcile seemingly contradictory empirical evidence showing that entry in the media market can either increase or decrease turnout. We also provide insights about the impact of competition on the most competent candidate's chance of election. JEL Classification Codes: D72, L82

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“…10 Petrova (2008) studies media capture by interest groups. Fergusson et al (2013) show that, conversely, free media are no guarantee of political accountability when institutions are weak. media outlets in a setting where news reporting is constrained to be coarse and citizens choose the most informative outlet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Media Competition and Electoral Politics

Piolatto

Schuett

2014

SSRN Journal

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We build a framework linking competition in the media market to political participation. Media outlets report on the ability of candidates running for office and compete for audience through their choice of slant. Citizens consume news only if the expected utility of being informed about candidates' ability is sufficiently large for their group collectively. Our results can reconcile seemingly contradictory empirical evidence showing that entry in the media market can either increase or decrease turnout. While information pushes up independent turnout, partisans adjust their turnout to the ability of their preferred candidate, and on average they vote less when informed.

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Sunlight Disinfects? Free Media in Weak Democracies

Cited by 31 publications

References 47 publications

Leveling the playing field: How campaign advertising can help non-dominant parties

Leveling the playing field: How campaign advertising can help non-dominant parties

Media Competition and Electoral Politics

Media Competition and Electoral Politics

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