Media Coverage of Political Scandals / Riccardo Puglisi, James M. Snyder, Jr..

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Puglisi, Riccardo.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Snyder, James M, Jr.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w14598.

NBER working paper series no. w14598

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2008.

Summary:

We analyze the coverage of U.S. political scandals by U.S. newspapers during the past decade. Using automatic keyword-based searches we collected data on 35 scandals and approximately 200 newspapers. We find that Democratic-leaning newspapers -- i.e., those with a higher propensity to endorse Democratic candidates in elections -- give relatively more coverage to scandals involving Republican politicians than scandals involving Democratic politicians, while Republican-leaning newspapers tend to do the opposite. This is true even when controlling for the average partisan leanings of readers. In contrast, newspapers appear to cater to the partisan tastes of readers only for local scandals.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2008.