Political polarization and the electoral effects of media bias

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bernhardt, Dan; Krasa, Stefan; Polborn, Mattias
• 署名单位: University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2008.01.006
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 1092-1104
• 关键词: media bias; polarization; information aggregation; DEMOCRACY

摘要

We develop a model in which profits of media firms depend on their audience ratings, and maximizing profits may involve catering to a partisan audience by suppressing information that the partisan audience does not like bearing. While voters are rational, understand the nature of the news suppression bias and update appropriately, important information is lost through bias and can lead to electoral mistakes. We characterize those conditions that give rise to electoral mistakes, showing that heightened political polarization and asymmetric distributions of voter ideologies make electoral mistakes more likely. Even if the median ideology is a centrist and centrist voters gain access to unbiased news, media bias can generate excessive cross-over voting, which, in turn, can lead to the election of the wrong candidate. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.