Media Capture and Bias in the Market for News

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhra Roy

Abstract We analyze a model of media bias under government capture and a free press. The government wants citizens to invest in a project. Citizens gain from investing only if the state of the economy is good. The state is unobserved. The media firm receives a noisy signal about the actual state and makes a report about whether or not the state of the economy is good. Citizens read the report and decide whether or not to invest. In this context, we show that media bias under government capture may be smaller (greater) than that under free press if the cost of investment is sufficiently high (low) provided that the signal noise is below a certain threshold. Finally, we show that the difference between the bias under government capture and free press diverges (converges) when the cost of investment is sufficiently high (low) in response to a reduction in noise.

1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Mosley

It is widely supposed that the level of popular support for governments depends on those governments' success in handling the economy. Some recent studies have attempted to test this idea by estimating the statistical relationship between the government's popularity in the opinion polls and various indicators of the state of the economy such as unemployment rates, inflation rates, growth rates and so on. A general finding of these studies is that popularity is significantly correlated with all these indicators of the standard of living. All of them, however, operate on the assumption that the voters behave as if they had perfect knowledge of the state of the economy as set out for example by the Government Statistical Service. Whether this assumption does, in fact, approximate to the truth will, however, depend in large part on how the popular media present economic trends and economic relationships to their public. If there are gaps and biases in the information which is presented to many voters, then those voters will be responding to a picture of the economy which may differ dramatically from the picture offered by publications such as Economic Trends and the government will be selling its policies in a highly imperfect market. The purpose of this paper is to mount a preliminary investigation into the picture of the economy which has been presented by one important medium of communication, namely mass-circulation newspapers. The aim is to show how firstly the scope and secondly the interpretation of the economic data presented by the popular press developed over the period 1960–80. The limitations of this method should be spelled out. We are not considering all the sources from which people derive information about the economy (personal communications, radio, television, newspapers), but only the last and possibly the most partisan of these. This Note offers, therefore, in no sense ‘the ordinary man in the street's perception of the economy’ but simply the picture of the economy which one influential medium of communication presented.


Author(s):  
Angela Dranishnikova

In the article, the author reflects the existing problems of the fight against corruption in the Russian Federation. He focuses on the opacity of the work of state bodies, leading to an increase in bribery and corruption. The topic we have chosen is socially exciting in our days, since its significance is growing on a large scale at all levels of the investigated aspect of our modern life. Democratic institutions are being jeopardized, the difference in the position of social strata of society in society’s access to material goods is growing, and the state of society is suffering from the moral point of view, citizens are losing confidence in the government, and in the top officials of the state.


2014 ◽  
Vol 652 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-221
Author(s):  
Anton Harber

Two decades of contestation over the nature and extent of transformation in the South African news media have left a sector different in substantive ways from the apartheid inheritance but still patchy in its capacity to fill the democratic ideal. Change came fast to a newly open broadcasting sector, but has faltered in recent years, particularly in a public broadcaster troubled by political interference and poor management. The potential of online media to provide much greater media access has been hindered by the cost of bandwidth. Community media has grown but struggled to survive financially. Print media has been aggressive in investigative exposé, but financial cutbacks have damaged routine daily coverage. In the face of this, the government has turned its attention to the print sector, demanding greater—but vaguely defined—transformation and threatened legislation. This has met strong resistance.


Significance At the beginning of 2021, the ZP coalition of the Law and Justice (PiS), Accord and United Poland (SP) parties is stable, but not as strong as it has been in previous years. This weakening in the PiS-led government’s condition is due to many factors, among which the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important. Impacts The process will continue of subordinating any independent state institutions still left to party control. PiS will take further, similar steps regarding the media, academia and NGOs. After months of pandemic lockdown, the state of the economy is stable if not ideal, and will not lead to early elections.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo Indjov ◽  
◽  
◽  

The study examines the applicability of the comparative framework of Hallin and Mancini (2004) with their three models of media‒politics relations (Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model, North/ Central European or Democratic Corporatist Model, and North Atlantic or Liberal Model) to a post-communist country like Bulgaria. The answer to this question is sought through a study of the role of the state in relation to the media system, particularly the state funding of media in its various forms. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the Bulgarian media system is most similar to the Mediterranean Model due to the power of еtatism (the state finances public media, and the government buys media love through state and municipal advertising). At the same time, ineffective media regulation favors media concentration and the instrumentalization of large government media groups. The processes of rapid liberalization, privatization and deregulation in the media sector after 1989 brought Bulgaria closer to the countries included in the Liberal Model. Therefore, its media system is hybrid to some extent, but the similarities with the Mediterranean Model remain in the lead. The clientelism through which they are tamed, resp. corrupt the media, brings Bulgaria closer to the Latin American countries where it is much stronger than in the Mediterranean region (Hallin, Papathanassopoulos 2002). The concluding part predicts that, in the future, the analysis of the Bulgarian media system can be enhanced with a study of the applicability of the concepts of the “captured liberal model” of the media (in Latin America) and the “captured media” in the post-communist world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Hafied Cangara ◽  
Subhan Amir ◽  
Nosakros Arya

This study aims to determine the role of community newspaper in carrying out its oversight function of corruption in South Sulawesi province, Indonesia. The type of research used is the content analysis and in-depth interviews with several key informants, including the mayor, the attorney general, the police, non-governmental organizations, and newspaper publishers. The unit of analysis is four local newspapers namely Pare Pos, Palopo Pos, Radar Bone and Radar Selatan. These four newspapers were published outside the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Makassar. Data analysis used the Single Factor Analysis of variance (ANOVA) or one-factor ANOVA (One Way ANOVA) test. The findings of the study show that: (1) the media has a role in carrying out its oversight function of corruption in government institutions in South Sulawesi, although this is not solely because of the media, but also the regulation and supervision carried out by the government through the bureaucratic path, (2) The portion of community newspaper coverage of corruption is quite large compared to other themes. However, judging from the tone of the news in general, it is still nuanced with information, and there has not been much investigated reporting. (3) Judging from the frequency of the coverage of these four newspapers, the Palopo Pos Daily and Radar Bone Daily showed a trend in reporting corruption issues, while the Pare Pos and Radar Selatan Daily tended to focus more on public service issues, for example waste, road, drinking water, electricity and traffic problems. However, statistical analysis showed that the difference was not significant.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haris Budiman dan Gios Adhyaksa

Article 1 (1) of the 1945 Constitution states that, Indonesia is the law of the State in the form of Republic. Therefore, the provisions of the applicable legislation and set the life of the Indonesian nation comes from the law, whether written or unwritten law. One runway is used as basic guidelines in order to achieve justice for all Indonesian people, especially in the field of law, set forth in Article 27 paragraph (1) of the Act of 1945, which reads, "All citizens are equal before the law and government and must uphold the rule of law and without exception. " Protection of witnesses reporting the crime of pornography, the identity of a witness, obviously very secret and confidential examined by the police, even on a trial judge has no right to bring a witness, before the trial because the reporter's identity confidentiality is strictly protected by the Law No. 44 Year 2008 on pornography.  Factors that became penghamabat the police to provide protection against the crime of pornography reporting, that one of the eligibility period and the cost to hold the protection of witnesses and victims must require substantial funds, although basically the police have been very ready to implement the law , subject to the government in terms of a special budget for the program of protection, especially for operational costs in the field.  Keywords: Crime, Pornography, Witness, Protection. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 351
Author(s):  
Ephraim Ahamefula Ikegbu ◽  
Peter Bisong Bisong ◽  
Enyimba Maduka

The media are like a two-edged sword; it could built, it could also destroy. It has the capacity to increase the virtue level of a society; it also has an equal capacity to increase the vices of the society. From surveys it appears to these writers that, the media at present is wielding its vicious powers more. An increase in cases of homicides, terrorism, crime, violence and other social ills in the world is a clear testimony to this assertion. Since the state or the government exists to produce virtues in the citizens, it is imperative that the government takes serious steps to curb the dysfunctional effects of the media on the citizens and the society at large. The government should not be left alone to do this, the religious leaders, physicians, psychologists, philosophers, parents and the media practitioners themselves need to contribute their quota to evolve a media of our dreams – a media that would yield positive and beneficial fruits to the society. The media should be an instrument aimed at shaping the lives of the youth and the society. As an educative, instructive, didactic and healing therapeutic facility, the negatives associated with the media should be avoided by aspiring to embrace the positive effects of their relevance.


Author(s):  
Ya-Wen Lei

Since the mid-2000s, public opinion and debate in China have become increasingly common and consequential, despite the ongoing censorship of speech and regulation of civil society. How did this happen? This book shows how the Chinese state drew on law, the media, and the Internet to further an authoritarian project of modernization, but in so doing, inadvertently created a nationwide public sphere in China—one the state must now endeavor to control. The book examines the influence this unruly sphere has had on Chinese politics and the ways that the state has responded. It shows that the development of the public sphere in China has provided an unprecedented forum for citizens to influence the public agenda, demand accountability from the government, and organize around the concepts of law and rights. It demonstrates how citizens came to understand themselves as legal subjects, how legal and media professionals began to collaborate in unexpected ways, and how existing conditions of political and economic fragmentation created unintended opportunities for political critique, particularly with the rise of the Internet. The emergence of this public sphere—and its uncertain future—is a pressing issue with important implications for the political prospects of the Chinese people. The book offers new possibilities for thinking about the transformation of state–society relations.


1857 ◽  
Vol 3 (21) ◽  
pp. 406-420
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Kern ◽  
J. C. B. Tr

The author is unable to determine to whom belongs the credit of having first attempted the education of idiot children. Saegert, of Berlin, believed that be had demonstrated scientifically the curability of idiocy in 1846. Seguin, of Paris had made known his efforts in the cause about the same period. Guggenbiihl opened his institution upon the Abendberg in 1836; but Voisin in Paris had preceded him, and even Voisin was not the first labourer in the field. The Government of Saxony has been the first to found an idiot institution, at the cost of the State. The Government of Wurtemburg has given its support to the institutions of Mariaburg and Winterbach, The Government of the kingdom of Sardinia has proved its lively interest in this question by issuing in 1848 a Royal Commission to inquire into the nature and the causes of cretinism, and it has thus set an example to other Governments.


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