scholarly journals Competition and Truth in the Market for News

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Gentzkow ◽  
Jesse M Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Market Competition ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Regulated Firms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Legal Arguments ◽  
Socially Relevant ◽  
Media Firms ◽  
Media Power ◽  
Side Bias

In this essay, we evaluate the case for competition in news markets from the perspective of economics. First, we consider the simple proposition that when more points of view are heard and defended, beliefs will converge to the truth. This concept of “competition” is several steps removed from market competition among actual media firms, but it has played a prominent role in the legal arguments for a free press. We then explore three mechanisms by which increasing competition, or more precisely increasing the number of independently-owned firms, can limit bias or distortions that originate on the supply-side of the media market: First, when governments attempt to manipulate news, competition can increase the likelihood that the media remain independent. Second, when news providers have an interest in manipulating consumers' beliefs, diversity in such incentives can reduce the risk of information being suppressed or distorted. Third, competition may drive firms to invest in providing timely and accurate coverage. Overall, we argue that there are robust reasons to expect competition to be effective in disciplining supply-side bias. Next, we ask how the effect of competition changes when distortions originate on the demand side of the market—when consumers themselves demand biased or less socially relevant news. We find that increased competition may or may not improve welfare in these cases, though we caution against using this as a justification for concentrating media power in the hands of state-controlled or regulated firms.

scholarly journals The Key Words Agenda: New Avenues for Agenda Setting Research

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Nicoleta Corbu ◽  
Olga Hosu
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Media ◽  
Setting Theory ◽  
Points Of View

This article seeks to expand the agenda setting theory and its later ramifications, by complementing them with the hypothesis of the articulation function of mass-media. Defined as the capacity of the media to offer people the words and expressions associated with defending specific points of view, the articulation function suggests a new ramification of the agenda setting theory, namely the key words level of agenda setting. Building on the third-level assumption about the transfer of issues and attributes from the media to people’s agenda in bundles, we argue that each issue is in fact transferred together with a set of “key words”, corresponding to the additional sub-topics related to the issue.

scholarly journals Revealing the Meanings of Prince Harry’s First Speech after Royal Split: Systemic Functional Grammar Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 362-375
Author(s):  
Widi Handayani
Keyword(s):  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Mental Process ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Systemic Functional Grammar ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Media Power

The speech is delivered by Prince Harry. Three areas of SFG are applied to analyze the speech. The result shows that in terms of ideational metafunction, material, and mental processes are 2 highest occurrences in the speech. It happens since the speaker displays all his concrete actions including doing charity and meeting many people of his country. Through mental process, it shows that he involves his senses to communicate the language in his mind. Three types of mental process, namely cognition, affection, and perception are found in the speech indicating his empathy to the people towards the news of the royal split. The interpersonal metafunction shows that he does take sides on the wife and family. Using modality, he employs that the media power force creates huge speculations among the citizens. They accuse his wife for bringing bad impacts for him. By applying high commitment of modality, he reassures people that his wife is not the cause of the split. He also requests the people to love her as much as they love him. The modality shows that the split will not change the commitment he has for serving the country. The polarity displays a clarification that the decision of splitting is taken after long consideration. The personal pronoun ‘I’ shows that the speaker is the subject matter of the speech. The textual metafunction in the speech shows that unmarked theme deploys the idea that it is a declarative speech which functions to give information or clarification. The additional conjunction is used to explore detailed information people must know.

scholarly journals South Africa's Debut into Broadcasting Criminal Trials – The Legal Arguments in Televising the Oscar Pistorius Trail

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Amanda James
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Criminal Trial ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Controversial Topic ◽  
Live Broadcast ◽  
Legal Arguments

The televising and/or any other form of broadcasting of judicial hearings and of criminal trials in particular is a controversial topic that has not only provoked debate and been argued about by academics, the media and the public for years, but continues to be argued about with few signs of abatement. Until recently South Africa had largely escaped becoming embroiled in this provocative topic, as the live broadcasting of criminal trials from South African courtrooms did not occur. The situation has changed, though, following the recent live televising of a full criminal trial – namely, the trial of South African Para-Olympic champion Oscar Pistorius. Given that this trial signalled South Africa's debut into the world of the live televising of criminal trial proceedings, the question is asked why exactly South Africa ventured into this contentious legal territory.It must be emphasised that the intention of this contribution is solely to explore the court's consideration of the constitutional mandates and rights that were contained in both the application and the opposing arguments pertaining to the live broadcast the trial of Oscar Pistorius. This note will not attempt to examine or even approach the far greater question of whether criminal trials should be televised or not, a topic better left to future research.      

Counterhegemony in the Media under Rafael Correa’s Citizens’ Revolution

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Kitzberger
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Open Process ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Power ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion ◽  
Radical Transformation

The Citizens’ Revolution, the political process initiated in Ecuador with the presidential inauguration of Rafael Correa in 2007, initiated a radical transformation in the media comparable to other progressive governmental experiments in the region. The political process led by Correa has pursued a change in power relations and ownership, the introduction of regulation, the demystification of the established media discourse, and an abandonment of the market as a guiding principle in the media. From the perspective of the equitable redistribution of media power, however, it is still an open process whose outcome is uncertain. La Revolución Ciudadana, el proceso político iniciado en el Ecuador con la investidura presidencial de Rafael Correa en 2007, inició una transformación radical en los medios de comunicación comparables a otros experimentos gubernamentales progresistas de la región. El proceso político liderado por Correa ha buscado un cambio en las relaciones de poder y la propiedad, la introducción de la regulación, la desmistificación del discurso de los medios establecidos, y un abandono del mercado como principio rector en los medios de comunicación. Desde la perspectiva de la redistribución equitativa de poder de los medios, sin embargo, sigue siendo un proceso abierto cuyo resultado es incierto.

Too Much of a Good Thing? Assessing Access to Civil Justice in Russia

Slavic Review ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 802-827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Hendley
Keyword(s):  
Field Work ◽  
Policy Choice ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Open Door Policy ◽  
Timely Fashion ◽  
The Media ◽  
Civil Courts ◽  
Popular Image

Kathryn Hendley argues that easy access to the civil courts in Russia is a deliberate policy choice aimed at countering the popular image of courts as hopelessly corrupt and incompetent that is propagated by the media. Judicial officials present judges as heroically struggling to cope with the deluge of cases in a timely fashion. Relying on field work and analysis of caseload data, Hendley shows that the burden on trial-level Russian judges has been exaggerated for effect. She documents the procedural mechanisms available to facilitate rapid turnaround of simple cases. She argues that the flood of cases could easily be stanched by increasing filing fees, but that judicial officials cling to the open door policy as a way of proving the value of the courts. Rather than discouraging the demand for courts, they prefer to tinker with the supply side of the equation.

A Taxonomy Approach to Fake News

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Valchanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communication Channels ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Media Corporations

The development of the Internet and social media and networks as a media environment and communication channels combined with the specificity of the journalistic profession in the online environment are a factor which contributes to the emergence and proliferation of fake news. The lack of reliable fact checking by the media and the fast news consumption by the public lead to mass disinformation about certain issues or subjects. The current paper examines fake news from several points of view and describes the models of their use – as harmless jokes, as lack of journalistic competence or professionalism and as means of manipulation and intentional misleading of public opinion. The attempts of big media corporations to fight fake news are also described.

Un modelo para analizar la representación simbólica del escándalo de corrupción política desde la teoría del framing: aplicación al ‘caso Umbra’ | A model to analyze the symbolic representation of the political corruption scandal from the framing theory

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rocío Zamora ◽  
Juan Antonio Marín Albadalejo
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
Symbolic Representation ◽  
Public Image ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Power ◽  
Political Scandals

Resumen Lo que algunos ya llaman una cultura política del escándalo (Barkin, 1999; Thompson, 2001; Castells, 2009) ha supuesto el reconocimiento del poder de los medios en la construcción simbólica del escándalo, a partir del énfasis en ciertos marcos interpretativos con los que se narran las conductas que condicionan la percepción pública de los escándalos políticos. Este trabajo se centra en la representación simbólica de los escándalos de corrupción política. El análisis de la cobertura periodística sobre un caso de gran actualidad en Murcia, el ‘caso Umbra’, demuestra que, además de por el relato político-técnico, legal y moral, los escándalos de corrupción política pueden ser también enmarcados desde el enfoque reputacional, es decir, a partir de preocupación por el deterioro de la imagen que la proliferación de escándalos de corrupción política ofrece sobre un territorio concreto y  sus instituciones.Palabras clave Escándalo político, corrupción política, framing, cultura política, poder político.AbstractWe live in, as some scholars called, a scandal political culture (Barkin, 1999; Thompson, 2001; Castells, 2009) that has supposed the recognition of the media power in the symbolic construction of scandals, where the emphasis in certain interpretive frames with which behaviours are narrated determine public perceptions of the political scandals. This article focuses on the symbolic representation of political corruption scandals. The analysis of the media coverage on this great current importance case in Murcia, called the ‘Umbra’ case, demonstrates that, besides the political- technical, legal and moral, the political corruption, scandals can be framed also from the reputation approach, that is to say, from the worried deterioration on the public image that political corruption scandals proliferation supposes on a concrete territory and his institutions.Keywords Political scandal, political corruption, framing, political culture, political power.

Media and Economic Inequality

2020 ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
Andrea Grisold ◽  
Hendrik Theine
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Power ◽  
Information Providers

Chapter 4 reviews a focused selection of the existing research which sheds light on the role that the media play in relation to the circulation of certain sets of ideas and discourses concerning inequality issues and redistribution policies (i.e., the shaping of inequality preferences and beliefs). The main aim in this chapter is to analyse prior empirical studies which explore how this is shaped and informed by media coverage and engagement. To do so, the authors first outline the findings of survey data analyses on individuals’ perception of inequality, and their related position towards the necessity of redistribution. After that, the chapter provides a systematic overview of contemporary empirical studies which examine the media coverage of economic inequality and redistribution policies, and thus debate the role mass media play as information providers. We assess the underlying assumptions and the methodological approaches guiding the respective empirical findings, highlight the merits of this body of work and identify open questions for further research. The last part of this chapter provides a discussion of (currently rather neglected) political economy theories that offer rich theoretical approaches to study media, power, and inequality, thus an enhanced theoretically informed understanding beyond the mere empiricism.

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