PARTISAN CONTROL, MEDIA BIAS, AND VIEWER RESPONSES: EVIDENCE FROM BERLUSCONI'S ITALY

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of private ownership and government control of the media on news content and viewership by consumers with di!ering ideologies. We use data from Italy, where the main private television network is owned by Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the center-right coalition, and the public television corporation is largely controlled by the ruling coalition. Our first finding is that when, following the 2001 national elections, the control of the government switched from the center-left to the center-right, news content on public television shifted to the right. Second, we find evidence that viewers responded to these changes by modifying their choice of news programs. Rightleaning viewers increased their propensity to watch public channels which, even after the change, remained to the left of private channels. Furthermore, some left-wing viewers reacted by switching from the more moderate to the more leftleaning of the public channels. Finally, we show that this behavioral response, which tended to shift ideological exposure to the left, significantly, though only partially, o!set the movement of public news content to the right.