Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Newspaper Slant

In this latest paper from Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M Shapiro, they research media slant, but add a test for the owner’s influence on the newspaper in question.

The key bits of the paper…

…consumers are more likely to read a newspaper whose slant is close to their own political ideology. This creates a strong economic incentive for newspapers to tailor their slant to suit the political leanings of their geographic market…

..owners do not exert a greater influence in areas where the political returns to persuasion are highest. Taken together, these findings further support the view that owners exert at most a small or modest role on the ideological content of the news.


So, while I am not sure about 24 hour cable news and how much Rupert Murdoch might influence Fox News, the print media seems to do exactly what it should do economically.

And if you don’t know about this site (www.mondotimes.com), now you do. It’s a great resource.

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