Opposition Media, State Censorship, and Political Accountability: Evidence
Opposition Media, State Censorship, and Political Accountability: Evidence from Chavez’s Venezuela* Brian Knight† Ana Tribin‡ January 20, 2021 Abstract This paper investigates the effects of the 2007 government closing of RCTV, a popular opposition televi- sion channel in Venezuela. Some parts of the country had access to a second opposition channel, Globovision, while other parts completely lost access to opposition television. We first show that viewership fell on the pro-government replacement, following the closing of RCTV, but rose on Globovision in areas with access to the signal. Based upon this switching, we then investigate whether support for Chavez fell in areas that retained access to opposition television, relative to those that completely lost access. Using three measures, Latinbaramoeter survey data, electoral returns, and data on protest activity, we show that support for Chavez fell in municipalities that retained access to opposition television, relative to municipalities that lost access to opposition television. Taken together, these findings suggest that changes in media consumption by voters can limit the effectiveness of state censorship. *We thank audiences at the California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Harvard University, London School of Eco- nomics, Nottingham University, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the University of Warwick, the Paris Empirical Political Economy Seminar, the New York City Media Seminar, and the RIDGE/LACEA-PEG Workshop on Political Economy. Julia Cage, Greg Martin, Adam Szeidl, Ferenc Szucs, and Maria Petrova provided helpful comments. †Brown University ‡Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean United Nations Development Programme 1 Introduction Opposition media has the potential to help voters hold incumbent politicians and parties accountable.
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