Does foreign media entry discipline or provoke local media bias?

Abstract

AbstractThis paper studies how the entry of an imperfectly informed foreign media outlet removes the government's role as the sole provider of information, altering its reporting to maximize citizen support. We find that while foreign media entry typically lowers local media bias, it can also exacerbate bias in countries with an incompetent government. The resulting deterioration in local media quality can outweigh the additional information from a foreign media of moderate quality, leaving citizens worse off. When analyzing a government's decision to suppress foreign media, we find that suppression is most heavily used in countries with a moderately competent government.