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American Economic Review: Vol. 95 No. 4 (September 2005)
AER Volume. 95, Issue 4 | 
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The Market for News
Article Citation
Mullainathan, Sendhil, and
Andrei Shleifer. 2005. "The Market for News."
The American Economic Review,
95(4): 1031-1053.
DOI: 10.1257/0002828054825619
DOI: 10.1257/0002828054825619
Abstract
We investigate the market for news under two assumptions: that readers hold beliefs which they like to see confirmed, and that newspapers can slant stories toward these beliefs. We show that, on the topics where readers share common beliefs, one should not expect accuracy even from competitive media: competition results in lower prices, but common slanting toward reader biases. On topics where reader beliefs diverge (such as politically divisive issues), however, newspapers segment the market and slant toward extreme positions. Yet in the aggregate, a reader with access to all news sources could get an unbiased perspective. Generally speaking, reader heterogeneity is more important for accuracy in media than competition per se.
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Authors
Mullainathan, Sendhil
Shleifer, Andrei
Shleifer, Andrei
