ECONOMICS
& FINANCE WORKSHOP
Discussion
Paper Series
What Drives News Media Slant?
Evidence from U.S. Daily Newspapers
By
Jesse SHAPIRO
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
And
Matthew GENTZKOW
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
Abstract
We construct a new index of media slant that measures whether a news
outlet's language is more similar to a congressional Republican or Democrat.
We apply the measure to study the market forces that determine political
content in the news. We estimate a model of newspaper demand that incorporates
slant explicitly, estimate the slant that would be chosen if newspapers
independently maximized their own profits, and compare these ideal points
with firms' actual choices. Our analysis confirms an economically significant
demand for news slanted toward one's own political ideology. Firms respond
strongly to consumer preferences, which account for roughly 20 percent
of the variation in measured slant in our sample. By contrast, the identity
of a newspaper's owner explains far less of the variation in slant,
and we find little evidence that media conglomerates homogenize news
to minimize fixed costs in the production of content.
Correspondence
Address:
Dr.
Jesse SHAPIRO
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
5807 South Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
U.S.A.
