Media Bias in China

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Qin, Bei; Stromberg, David; Wu, Yanhui
• 署名单位: University of Hong Kong; Stockholm University; University of Southern California
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20170947
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 2442-2476
• 关键词: US NEWSPAPERS; MARKET; news; ACCOUNTABILITY; COMPETITION; FEDERALISM; propaganda; CENSORSHIP; BEHAVIOR; press

摘要

This paper examines whether and how market competition affected the political bias of government-owned newspapers in China from 1981 to 2011. We measure media bias based on coverage of government mouthpiece content (propaganda) relative to commercial content. We first find that a reform that forced newspaper exits (reduced competition) affected media bias by increasing product specialization, with some papers focusing on propaganda and others on commercial content. Second, lower-level governments produce less-biased content and launch commercial newspapers earlier, eroding higher-level governments' political goals. Third, bottom-up competition intensifies the politico-economic trade-off, leading to product proliferation and less audience exposure to propaganda.