Media as watchdogs: The role of news media in electoral competition

We develop an equilibrium model to analyze the role of the media in electoral competition. When policy payoffs are state-dependent, party policies do not converge to the median voter's ideal policy if the media report only party policies. News analysis about the state, though possibly biased, c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean economic review Vol. 53; no. 7; pp. 799 - 814
Main Authors Chan, Jimmy, Suen, Wing
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.10.2009
Elsevier
Elsevier Sequoia S.A
SeriesEuropean Economic Review
Subjects
Bias
Cheap talk
Competition
Convergence
Economic models
Election law
Elections
Electoral campaigning
Equilibrium models
Media
Media bias
Media bias Cheap talk Policy convergence
News media
Party politics
Pay-off
Policy convergence
Probability
Studies
Policy convergence
Media bias
Cheap talk
D72
D82
Online AccessGet full text

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Summary:We develop an equilibrium model to analyze the role of the media in electoral competition. When policy payoffs are state-dependent, party policies do not converge to the median voter's ideal policy if the media report only party policies. News analysis about the state, though possibly biased, can discipline off-equilibrium deviations and make the parties adopt more centrist policies. Since voters are rational, the party favored by the media need not win with a higher probability. Instead, media bias may reduce the effectiveness of electoral competition and lead to more polarized policies.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0014-2921
1873-572X
DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2009.01.002