THE ECONOMIC RECORD, VOL. 88, NO. 280, MARCH, 2012, 127–147
How Partisan is the Press? Multiple Measures of Media Slant*
JOSHUA S. GANS ANDREW LEIGH Rotman School of Management, University of Economics Program, Research School of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Social Sciences, Australian National University, ACT, Canberra, Australia
We employ several different approaches to estimate the political position of Australian media outlets, relative to federal parliamen- tarians. First, we use parliamentary mentions to code over 100 public intellectuals on a left–right scale. We then estimate slant by using the number of mentions that each public intellectual receives in each media outlet. Second, we have independent raters separately code front-page election stories and headlines. Third, we tabulate the number of electoral endorsements that newspapers give to each side of politics in federal elections. Overall, we find that the Australian media are quite centrist, with very few outlets being statistically distinguishable from the middle of Australian politics. It is possible that this is because of the lack of competi- tion in the Australian media market. To the extent that we can separate content slant from editorial slant, we find some evidence that editors are more partisan than journalists.
IIntroduction system.1 It is, therefore, hardly surprising that As the primary means through which politi- journalists and politicians are acutely concerned cians communicate with the electorate, a free and about the political leanings of media outlets. fair media is integral to a healthy democratic Occasionally, media outlets boast of their influ- ence, as with The Sun newspaper claiming the day after the Conservative victory in the 1992 UK * We have received valuable comments from asso- ciate editor Mardi Dungey, two anonymous referees, Tim Groseclose and seminar participants at the Aus- 1 Press freedom is enshrined in Article 19 of the tralian National University and the 2008 Australasian Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: Public Choice meetings. Vivienne Groves, Kimberley ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and Jin, Rachael Meager, Susanne Schmidt, Michelle Tan expression; this right includes freedom to hold opin- and Elena Varganova provided outstanding research ions without interference and to seek, receive, and assistance. We are also grateful to those individuals impart information and ideas through any media who coded newspaper headlines and articles: David regardless of frontiers’. An annual ‘Freedom of the Christie, Chamath De Silva, Robert Macdonald, Chris- Press Index’ compiled by Freedom House tracks the tine Mahoney and Jimmy Phengrasmy. extent to which media outlets are subject to overt JEL classifications: D72, L82 political control, as well as the potential for owner- Correspondence: Joshua S. Gans, Rotman School of ship concentration to lead to bias. In the 2008 report, Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Freedom House rates the freedom of the press in Aus- M5S 3E6, Canada. Email: [email protected] tralia as 35th out of 195 nations.
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