Media bias PDF
Preview Media bias
MITLIBRARIES 3 9080 02528 6441 Digitized by the Internet Archive 2011 with funding from in Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/mediabiasOOmull °1 1 « — B3 Department ofEconomics t. - - M415 Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) x o- " Working PaperNo. 02-33 Institute for Economic Research Harvard University Institute ResearchWorking PaperNo. 198 Media Bias Sendhil Mullainathan MIT; NBER Andrei Shleifer Harvard University; NBER This paper can be downloaded without charge from the Social Science Research Network Electronic PaperCollection at: http:/7ssrn.com/abstract_id=335800 . MASSACHUSETTS'INSTiTuTr OFTECHNOLOGY JAN 2 I 2003 LIBRARIES Media Bias Sendhil Mullainathan and Andrei Shleifer* (MIT and Harvard University) *We are extremely grateful to Alberto Alesina, Gene DAvolio, Ed Glaeser, Simon Johnson, Larry Katz, and Richard Posner for comments. C Abstract There are two different types ofmedia bias. One bias, which we refer to as ideology, reflects a news outlet's desire to affect reader opinions in a particular direction. The secondbias, which we refer to as spin, reflects the outlet's attempt to simply create a memorable story. We examine competition among media outlets in the presence ofthese biases. Whereas competition can eliminate the effect ofideological bias, it actually exaggerates the incentive to spin stories. Sendhil Mullainathan Andrei Shleifer MIT Harvard University Department ofEconomics Department ofEconomics 50 Memorial Drive, E52-251 M9 Littauer Center MA MA Cambridge, 02142 Cambridge, 02138 mullain(o)mit.edu ashleifer(a),harvard.edu and NBER andNBER
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