Media Slant Research Articles

Media Slant and Public Policy Views

We study how exposure to partisan news channels (i.e., Fox News vs. MSNBC) affects individual views on four policy issues — climate change, gun rights, abortion, and immigration. First, using GPT to annotate news transcripts, we document large differences in the way the two networks cover these issues. Second, exploiting exogenous variation in viewership due to channels' positions in cable lineups, we show that exposure to Fox News (MSNBC) is associated with more conservative (progressive) views, even when controlling for self-reported ideology and party affiliation. Our findings indicate that partisan media contribute to the rise of political polarization in the US.

Foreign media slant, foreign investors, and informativeness of earnings

Foreign media slant, foreign investors, and informativeness of earnings

Status of quality indicators in a mycobacteriology culture laboratory, Hawassa, Sidama, Ethiopia.

We aimed to assess performance parameters in a Hawassa Tuberculosis Culture Laboratory, in the Sidama Regional Public Health Institute. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between 27 October 2020 and 31 May 2021, on 439 clinical specimens. The specimens were processed using standard procedures, and the final suspension was inoculated into a Microbial Growth Indicator Tube and Lowenstein-Jensen media slant. Ziehl-Neelsen staining and the Bioline test kit were used to identify and confirm Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The data were analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 26). Out of a total of 439 specimens that were processed, the recovery rates for smear-positive specimens were 61% (25 out of 41) and 58.5% (24 out of 41) for the Mycobacterial Growth Indicator Tube, and the Lowenstein-Jensen methods, respectively. For smear-negative samples, the recovery rates were 4.5% (18 out of 398) for both methods. Only 4 (0.9%) specimens were rejected. The mean turnaround times to detect mycobacteria from smear-positive samples were 14 and 32 days for the Mycobacterial Growth Indicator Tube and Lowenstein-Jensen methods, respectively. The standard deviations were ±6.3 days and ±9.7 days, respectively. For smear-negative samples, the mean turnaround times were 17.7 and 31 days for the Mycobacterial Growth Indicator Tube and Lowenstein-Jensen methods, respectively. The standard deviations were ±9.2 days and ±9.6 days, respectively. The contamination rates for the Mycobacterial Growth Indicator Tube and Lowenstein-Jensen methods were 9.8% (43 out of 439) and 9.6% (42 out of 439), respectively. The detection rate of nontuberculosis mycobacteria was 1.4% (6 out of 439). It demands attention to improve the low recovery rate among smear-negative cultures and culture contamination rates.

Do Journalists Drive Media Slant?

Do Journalists Drive Media Slant?

Stock pledge and media slant: evidence from China

ABSTRACT This paper explores the relationship between stock pledges and media slants. Using data from China, we find that firms with controlling shareholders that start to pledge shares or increase shares pledging for loans are covered with more positive media tones. The association is more prominent when firms with higher margin call pressure, closer relationships with media, more individual investor holdings, and less analyst coverage. We further investigate the underlying channels through which stock pledges may affect media slant. Our results show that stock-pledging firms promote media slants by releasing positive news in pre-announcements and increasing advertising expenditure. We also find that the optimistic media slant of pledging firms results from increased favorable media reports instead of reducing negative information. Moreover, positive media slants will lead to a higher excess stock return of pledging firms. Compared with negative news, positive media coverage is more likely to affect pledging firms’ stock returns. Our findings prove that share-pledging firms may engage in media management. We also provide evidence for the existence of media bias in emerging markets.

Epidemiology of Avian Tuberculosis in Selected Districts of Oromia Region, Ethiopia.

Avian tuberculosis is a growing public health concern and a significant impediment to socioeconomic development, especially in developing countries, where the risk of infection is high. The disease is predominantly caused by Mycobacterium avium belonging to serotypes 1, 2, 3, and 6 (genotypes IS901 and IS1245) and Mycobacterium genavense. It mostly occurs in older birds and immunocompromised individuals due to the greater opportunity for infection with age and host immunity. A cross-sectional study anticipated to generate epidemiological information on avian tuberculosis was carried out from November 2016 to June 2017 at highland areas of Gerar Jarso, Ada'a (midland), and Boset (lowland) districts of Oromia region, Ethiopia. Two hundred seventy-three village chickens comprising local breeds, exotic breeds, and crossbreeds of both sexes were used in the study. Single intradermal avian tuberculin test, postmortem inspection of positive reactors, mycobacteriological culturing, and histopathological examination were used to assess information on the epidemiology of the disease. Subsequently, avian tuberculin test revealed an overall apparent prevalence of 11.4% (31/273) and a specific prevalence of 6.8% (6/88) in the highland, 13.4% (13/97) in the midland, and 13.6% (12/88) in the lowland study districts. Besides, it signified a higher odd of exposure in crossbreeds and females as compared to locals and males. In addition, greater odd of exposure was observed in chickens at mid- and low altitudes as compared to those at the highland. Moreover, 40.9% (9/22) of positive reactor chickens sacrificed for necropsy showed gross pathological lesions. Similarly, histopathological examination revealed a granuloma characterized by central necrosis and peripheral mononuclear lymphocytes. Nevertheless, only 0.02% (2/120) of the cultured tissues had shown colonial growth up to 12 weeks of incubation, and both were seen on sodium pyruvate-enriched Lowenstein–Jensen medium slants. Generally, the study revealed an overall increment of the apparent prevalence of avian tuberculosis with decreasing altitude. Besides, it signified a relative breed and sex variation in the risk of acquiring the disease, with crossbreeds and female chickens having higher odds of exposure.

Does the Ideology of the Newsroom Affect the Provision of Media Slant?

ABSTRACT Although research on the provision of ideologically slanted news has focused on consumers’ demands or news ownership’s profit margins and political agendas, little focus has been paid to those individuals who create the news content: the political journalists. We use a new measure of newspaper ideology derived from a large scale survey of journalists to estimate the ideology of almost 700 newsrooms, a substantial increase over previous efforts. By estimating newsroom ideology independent of content we show that newsroom ideology influences the responsiveness of newspapers to the demands of readers. We find that newsroom ideology has an effect on the ideological slant of news content even after controlling for consumer preferences. While consumer demand influences the ideological content of the news, the ideology of the newsroom that produces the news skews the responsiveness to the demands of readership and ultimately affects the production of ideological slant in the news.

Air Pollution and Media Slant: Evidence from Chinese Corporate News

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of air pollution on the media slant of publicly listed firms in China. Using a large panel of air quality and media data at the city level, we find that lower air quality generally leads to a more negative media slant. When the air quality falls from lightly polluted to heavily polluted, the number of negative sentences in a news article increases by about 1%. Our subsample analysis shows that the effect of air pollution on media slant is similar for news articles covering large and small firms, SOE and non-SOE firms and for official and non-official newspaper articles. Furthermore, the effect of air pollution on media slant is stronger for firms in heavy polluting industries. These results suggest that air pollution affects media slant.

WHY MEDIA SLANT? Media coverage of mergers and acquisitions in China

Using a text analysis of Chinese newspaper articles covering 1321 proposed mergers during 2008–2018, this study proposes attribution theory to examine how the media is susceptible to stereotype bias. Evidence reveals that the media pays considerable attention to and exhibits favourable sentiments toward overseas-experienced acquirers, which is found only in non-state-owned enterprises. Further analyses on the amplifying effect of stereotype bias show that the media slant more positively on large-scale overseas experiences. Results indicate that the media is biased, referring to impression migration from merger and acquisition experience.

Political connections and media slant

We examine the influence of political connections on media slant for a sample of Chinese listed firms. We find that firms with stronger political connections obtain more positive reports from major Chinese business newspapers. The association is more pronounced when firms are located in provinces with more government intervention and when the media are state-controlled (compared with market-oriented media). We further examine two explanations for the positive association between political connections and media slant. On the demand side, the firm management channel sees firms using their political connections to manage the relationship with the media for favorable reporting. On the supply side, the media intention channel has media outlets providing favorable reporting to connected firms to enhance their own relationship with the government. We find evidence supporting the firm management channel.

Air Pollution and Media Slant: Evidence from Chinese Corporate News

This paper examines the impact of air pollution on the media slant of publicly listed firms in China. Using a large panel of air quality and media data at the city level, we find that lower air quality generally leads to a more negative media slant. When the air quality falls from lightly polluted to heavily polluted, the number of negative sentences in a news article increases by about 1%. Our subsample analysis shows that the effect of air pollution on media slant is similar in news articles for large and small firms, SOE and non-SOE firms, official press, and non-official press. Furthermore, the effect of air pollution on media slant is stronger for firms in heavy pollution industries. These results suggest that air pollution affects media slant.

Benefits of Publicity

We investigate whether corporate board members with media expertise influence firms’ media coverage and media slant. We find that firms with a media professional on the board of directors receive more media coverage, and articles written about them include fewer negative words compared with articles on control firms. These findings highlight the importance of the composition of the board of directors as a determinant of information disclosure mechanism.

Partisan selective engagement: Evidence from Facebook

This study investigates the effects of variation in “congeniality” of news on Facebook user engagement (likes, shares, and comments). We compile an original data set of Facebook posts by 84 German news outlets on politicians that were investigated for criminal offenses from January 2012 to June 2017. We also construct an index of each outlet's media slant by comparing the language of the outlet with that of the main political parties, which allows us to measure the congeniality of the posts. We find that user engagement with congenial posts is higher than with uncongenial ones, especially in terms of likes. The within-outlet, within-topic design allows us to infer that the greater engagement with congenial news is likely driven by psychological and social factors, rather than a desire for accurate or otherwise instrumental information.

Media Slant is Contagious

Media Slant is Contagious

Public Media Do Serve the State: A Field Experiment

A vital role of public media according to the theoretical literature is to enable consumers to cross-check the information provided by slanted private media. To check the neutrality of public media, we conducted a randomized field experiment in Japan in collaboration with the nation's public service broadcaster in which the capacity for viewing its programs was randomly increased. Contrary to our expectations, we find that the treatment increased the evaluation of certain policies by raising the viewing time of its programs. To study the mechanism, we use unsupervised machine learning to measure media slant using the semantic similarity between TV programs and the official statements. Using this metric, we find that the positive effect is driven by subjects’ exposure to information slanted in favor of the domestic government during the experiment. These findings highlight the importance of creating institutions that secure the independence of public media.

Negative Media Coverage of the Supreme Court: The Interactive Role of Opinion Language, Coalition Size, and Ideological Signals

ObjectiveWe offer a novel consideration of how judicial behavior influences Court coverage, examining when the media use negative language to cover the Supreme Court, and the consequences of this portrayal.MethodsRegression analysis to examine over 1,000 news articles from 29 diverse outlets covering rulings from the 2014 term, using text‐based measures of the Court and media's negative coverage.ResultsWe find that the Court sends an important signal of conflict when using negative language in its decisions, leading to increases in negativity in subsequent coverage. We also show that this effect is conditional upon both the degree of consensus and ideological signals the Court sends when it rules.ConclusionThe media's treatment of the Supreme Court is in many ways a product of the conflict and ideological positioning that can be observed from the Court's rulings. It suggests that Court signals can attenuate media slant.

Social responsibility scandals and trade

Abstract This paper studies the effect of social responsibility scandals on the imports of consumer products, by focusing on an event which generated massive consumer mobilization against neglecting firms, namely the collapse of the Rana Plaza building affecting the textile industry in Bangladesh. We investigate the import repercussions of this major shock in the perceived quality of clothing producers sourcing in Bangladesh. In line with the well-documented home bias in trade and home-country media slant, we assume that consumers’ reaction will be stronger when domestic firms are named and shamed. Our empirical strategy uses a difference-in-difference approach that compares imports from Bangladesh of countries according to whether some of their companies were directly associated with the collapse of the Rana Plaza. Our results are consistent with demand being sensitive to social responsibility scandals. While aggregate imports from Bangladesh continue to increase during the whole period (2010–2016), there is a marked disruption that affects countries whose brands were named and shamed by activists and the media after the disaster. In addition, the decline in imports is all the greater as the number of NGO campaigns on the misbehavior of national textile retailers is high.

Home-Country Media Slant and Equity Prices

We study national newspaper reporting and investor beliefs across the U.S., Germany, and Japan. Using novel large-scale hand-coded media data for the automotive industry, we show that news about companies is systematically more positive in companies’ home countries than abroad. Home-country media slant increases during bad times for companies, and it correlates strongly with equity prices. Cross-country difference in news tone predicts temporary price deviations of cross-listed stocks. Abnormally high home-media news tone predicts low monthly domestic stock returns. The effects are strongest for confirmatory news and weakest when home-biased investors are likely distracted by sporting events.

Price Theory

I argue that there exists a coherent and relevant tradition in economic thought that I label “price theory.” I define it as neoclassical microeconomic analysis that reduces rich and often incompletely specified models into “prices” (approximately) sufficient to characterize solutions to simple allocative problems. I illustrate this definition by highlighting distinctively price theoretic approaches to prominent research practices (diagrams and problems sets) and substantive research topics (e.g. selection markets and media slant). I trace the origins of price theory from the early nineteenth century through its segregation into the Chicago School in the last quarter of the twentieth. I argue that price theory plays a valuable complementary role to two traditions, “reductionism” and “empiricism,” with which I contrast it and show how this contribution of price theory has fueled a resurgence in this style of research in fields ranging from market design to international trade. Approximations critical to price theory are less formally developed than tools used in other methodological traditions, suggesting a research agenda to clarify the accuracy and range of validity of these methods.(JEL B13, B21, B41, D00, D47, F10)

Congeniality and News Demand: Evidence from Facebook

This study investigates the effects of variation in “congeniality” of news on Facebook user engagement (likes, shares, and comments). We compile an original data set of Facebook posts by 84 German news outlets on politicians that were investigated for criminal offenses from January 2012 to June 2017. We also construct an index of each outlet’s media slant by comparing the language of the outlet with that of the main political parties, which allows us to measure the congeniality of the posts. We find evidence that, for each of our measures of engagement, users engaged with congenial posts more than with uncongenial ones. The within-outlet, within-topic design allows us to infer that the greater engagement with congenial news is likely driven by psychological and social factors, rather than a desire for accurate or otherwise instrumental information as is often assumed in the media bias theory literature.