A Spatial Theory of Media Slant and Voter Choice

We develop a theory of media slant as a systematic filtering of political news that reduces multidimensional politics to the one-dimensional space perceived by voters. Economic and political choices are interdependent in our theory: expected electoral results influence economic choices, and economic...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Review of economic studies 2011-04, Vol.78 (2), p.640-666
Main Authors: DUGGAN, J., MARTINELLI, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic choice
Economic theory
Elections
Income taxes
Incumbents
Interdependence
Journalism
Media
News
News media
Political candidates
Political communication
Political economy
Political partisanship
Public goods
Spatial analysis
Studies
Tax policy
Voter behavior
Voting
Voting behaviour
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We develop a theory of media slant as a systematic filtering of political news that reduces multidimensional politics to the one-dimensional space perceived by voters. Economic and political choices are interdependent in our theory: expected electoral results influence economic choices, and economic choices in turn influence voting behaviour. In a two-candidate election, we show that media favouring the front-runner will focus on issues unlikely to deliver a surprise, while media favouring the underdog will gamble for resurrection. We characterize the socially optimal slant and show that it coincides with the one favoured by the underdog under a variety of circumstances. Balanced media, giving each issue equal coverage, may be worse for voters than partisan media.
ISSN:0034-6527
1467-937X
DOI:10.1093/restud/rdq009