Government control of the media

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gehlbach, Scott; Sonin, Konstantin
• 署名单位: University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; HSE University (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.06.004
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 163-171
• 关键词: media; political economy; Formal theory

摘要

We present a formal model of government control of the media to illuminate variation in media freedom across countries and over time. Media bias is greater and state ownership of the media more likely when the government has a particular interest in mobilizing citizens to take actions that further some political objective but are not necessarily in citizens' individual best interest; however, the distinction between state and private media is smaller. Large advertising markets reduce media bias in both state and private media but increase the incentive for the government to nationalize private media. Media bias in state and private media markets diverge as governments become more democratic, whereas media bias in democracies and autocracies converge as positive externalities from mobilization increase. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.