The Role of Public Broadcasting in Media Bias: Do People React Differently to Pro-government Bias in Public and Private Media?

Taka-Aki Asano,Atsushi Tago,Seiki Tanaka

doi:10.1007/s11109-021-09756-0

Abstract

People often reject new information, especially when it does not fit their prior beliefs. But do publics in advanced democracies reject information from public and private media outlets in the same way? We examine this question in the form of the media’s pro-government bias in the under-examined case of Japan. By combining unique textual data with an original survey experiment, we document that (1) people generally tend to reject pro-government biased information that overly praises government actions; but (2) the reasons why people reject the same biased information vary—based on their expectations of neutrality for public media, and on expectations derived from political ideology for private media. Our study suggests that the basis of people’s motivated reasoning differs when they evaluate content from public and private media.

Highlights

By combining unique textual data with an original survey experiment, we document that (1) people generally tend to reject pro-government biased information that overly praises government actions; but (2) the reasons why people reject the same biased information vary—based on their expectations of neutrality for public media, and on expectations derived from political ideology for private media
Do people reject new information when it comes from a perceived neutral, reliable information provider? Even if we are generally distrustful of new information, how we reject such information emanating from private and public media may differ as many citizens in advanced democracies have different expectations of public broadcasters
This paper argued that how people react to pro-government bias may differ depending on the type of media, with people evaluating public media content based on expected neutrality and private media content based on political ideology

Summary

Introduction

We suggest that due to the expectation of neutrality, citizens will likely evaluate statement bias by public media based on the source, while the same people will likely judge private media’s biased content based on their own political beliefs, regardless of the source of information.

Results

Conclusion