12: Media Flashcards
media consumption matrix
tells us about the proportion of the population that consumes different sources of media
shows segments of the population that consume the same sources of media and what reach of the population those media sources have
essentially 25% of the population consumes media 1 and 2, 25% of the population consumes 1, 2, 3, 5, etc.
attention share
driven by how much a source of media can control a segment of a population
attention share is 1 for a media source if it is the only source of media used within particular segment, etc.
media power index
tells us about the influence or power that media has over electoral outcomes
essentially, computed to answer the question of what kind of a vote gap the media can close in favour of the candidate they would manipulate the election for
how are information inequality, information poverty and connectedness related to income inequality?
information inequality (how many news sources people consume)
- in countries where internet is available for the population at large, income and information inequality correlate with each other
- not the same in countries where internet penetration is lower (still positive correlation but weaker)
information poverty
- in countries with high income inequality, people who don’t consume any news or only one news outlet is a bigger group than in those countries with lower income inequality
connectedness (connection between partisan groups - probability that two people drawn randomly have a news source in common)
- in countries where internet is widely available, if income inequality is high, the level of connectedness is low
which types of media tend to be the most powerful?
producers of television news, televised public service broadcasters
voter naïveté
do voters naively believe news or do they filter it?
difficult because are you reading left-wing news because you are left-wing or are you left-wing because you are reading left-wing news?
e. g. Berlusconi coming to power for a second time in 2001
- government controls the public service broadcaster so news content moved to the right
- viewers respond by moving to more left-wing channels (left-wing viewers moved to more leftist challenge, moderate right-wing viewers were attracted to state television channels from even more conservative channels)
are public service broadcasters complements or substitutes to private media?
the more the government funds public media, the lower the news sources consumed by individuals
if the number of news sources consumed is something that undoes bias/manipulation, funding public media means there is a greater risk for media outlets to manipulate what people believe since people will consume fewer outlets
the more funding for public media, the more concentrated the media markets get which is something we worry about
how do Snyder and Strömberg study whether better informed voters receive better policies?
study whether more information improves performance (suggested in the accountability model) - does the fact that the newspaper is covering more about a certain congressperson mean that there is more information for voters?
the more informed the people, the higher the turnout because people are better informed with comparisons to people in other districts
more information also means that politicians behave with the interests of the district rather than the interests of a party
more information also means politicians work harder to get federal spending for the district and it ends up being a higher amount than in places where voters are not informed
what is newsworthiness bias and how does it manifest?
idea that the media will only publish certain types of news and so politicians will overspend on newsworthy projects and cutback on others to ensure it goes on the media
e.g. US relief provided is likely biased against drought victims and African disaster victims
another e.g. Israeli attacks more likely to occur when US news the next day is dominated by important predictable events
why might media competition increase or decrease total coverage?
media market has large increasing returns to scale
if the population is heterogenous in terms of willingness-to-pay for newspaper qualities, the entry of an additional newspaper leads one newspaper to produce high quality news at a high price and the other low quality at a low price so competition is good and the market expands
if the population is homogenous, the entrant garners half of the market and halves the incumbents’ newspaper circulation and both newspapers produce a lower-quality newspaper than the monopolist would
