Corporate Ownership and News Bias Revisited: Newspaper Coverage of the Supreme Court’s <i>Citizens United</i> Ruling

Bailard, Catie Snow

doi:10.1080/10584609.2016.1142489

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…These results speak directly to the literature on the influence of media ownership on the political content of the news produced by a media organization. This research program has found that the ownership of a media outlet determines how that outlet covers campaigns and candidates (Branton and Dunaway 2009; Dunaway and Lawrence 2015) and how the outlet slants its coverage away from issues potentially damaging to the ownership’s political or financial interests (Bailard 2016; Gilens and Hertzman 2000). We provide additional support for these claims, documenting a substantial shift in topics covered and ideological slant of political coverage as a product of ownership change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consolidation changes the incentives of news providers, shifting coverage toward the topics that can be distributed in multiple markets rather than those—such as local politics—that are market-specific. Consolidation among conglomerate owners is also correlated with changes in editorial decisions, where the newly consolidated outlets are more likely to produce the content that favors the political and financial interests of their owners (Bailard 2016; Gilens and Hertzman 2000). These content changes influence viewers’ available information about local elections and elected officials, along with the ideological slant of news to which they are exposed.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Local News and National Politics

Martin¹,

2019

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The level of journalistic resources dedicated to coverage of local politics is in a long-term decline in the US news media, with readership shifting to national outlets. We investigate whether this trend is demand- or supply-driven, exploiting a recent wave of local television station acquisitions by a conglomerate owner. Using extensive data on local news programming and viewership, we find that the ownership change led to (1) substantial increases in coverage of national politics at the expense of local politics, (2) a significant rightward shift in the ideological slant of coverage, and (3) a small decrease in viewership, all relative to the changes at other news programs airing in the same media markets. These results suggest a substantial supply-side role in the trends toward nationalization and polarization of politics news, with negative implications for accountability of local elected officials and mass polarization.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Local News and National Politics

Martin¹,

2019

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“…Media reporting on specific events, such as the US Supreme Court rulings or electoral campaigns, has been shown to vary depending on the financial interests of their corporate owners (e.g. Bailard, 2016;Dunaway & Lawrence, 2015;Hughes & Lawson, 2005;Markus & Charnysh, 2017). Wegenast and Schneider's (2017) study of deposits of natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa reveals that state repression as answer to societal dissent is particularly likely if oil fields are majority-owned by international companies (cf.…”

Section: Conceptualizing Ownership As Variable In Political Science R...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The political power of internet business: A comprehensive dataset of Telecommunications Ownership and Control (TOSCO)

2022

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The ‘internet’—familiar shorthand for information and communication technologies (ICT)—is built on a physical infrastructure owned by a variety of state and private actors, foreign and domestic, with multiple interests. It has not only driven change on a global scale; its spread also had a profound impact on the social sciences. However, our understanding of how its architecture, and especially its owners, influence its political and economic impact is still in its infancy. This paper presents the Telecommunications Ownership and Control (TOSCO) dataset on ownership of internet service providers (ISPs) that allows to recognize the internet as strategically built and used by governments and corporations. Along with a thorough discussion of the conceptualization and operationalization of ownership as a variable, the TOSCO dataset enables comparative large-N analysis of the determinants and effects of varying ownership structures and identities in the transforming context of 49 African countries, 2000–2019. We demonstrate its usefulness with descriptive statistics and regression analyses using replication data from research on the internet’s democratizing and corruption-reducing effects. In allowing for a more realistic account, TOSCO supports scholars and practitioners concerned with the determinants and effects of internet service provision, use and control in Africa and beyond.

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“…For instance, it was found that CNN covered issues regarding Time Warner products more positively than those of other corporations (Williams, 2002) so that throughout the day, audiences were frequently exposed to promotional news that benefits the news organization or its corporate owner at the expense of news that informs viewers of national and international issues. In addition, news subsidiaries may selectively avoid reporting news that is controversial in favor of business interests of their parent corporation (Archer and Clinton, 2017; Bailard, 2016).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, changes observed in news content, such as self-coverage and cross-promotion of activities, raise concerns about potential conflict of interest because cross-owned media companies may be advancing their own business interests at the expense of the public’s need for knowledge about national and international issues (Davis and Craft, 2000; Terry, 2013). Due to limitations of time and space, newspaper organizations that depend on circulation and advertising revenue for financial stability must decide how best to balance profit-making pursuits against their social duty to report issues that the public needs to know to maintain a healthy democracy (Archer and Clinton, 2017; Bailard, 2016; McAllister, 2002). Thus, self-promotion by cross-owned corporations raises issues of possible conflict of interest at the institutional level when media companies in their role as employers are able to socialize journalists, as employees, to cover news that benefits their own companies at the expense of reporting information in the public interest (Turow, 1994).…”

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confidence: 99%

Self-coverage for public interest or self-promotion: How media cross-ownership structures affect news content in South Korea

et al. 2018

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The growing phenomenon of cross-ownership by media conglomerates and the influence of that phenomenon on news content continues to receive considerable attention internationally. Such cross-ownership of media has triggered discussions about whether media firms prioritize their own business interests through self-promotion. In the context of South Korea where the three main newspapers are permitted by the government to cross-own cable TV network subsidiaries, this study looks at whether and to what extent self-coverage is done with the intent of self-promotion. Specifically, this study examined 1362 news articles about issues related to self-coverage published in five of South Korea’s major newspapers – three with cable TV networks and, for purposes of comparison, two without. Content analysis showed that the three newspapers that cross-own cable TV networks were more likely than their competitors to cover more frequently as well as more positively news about their primary shareholders along with news about programs broadcast by their own subsidiary cable TV networks. These results may suggest that self-coverage by newspaper companies in South Korea tend to favor their own private interests at levels higher than news of public interest.

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Corporate Ownership and News Bias Revisited: Newspaper Coverage of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United Ruling

Cited by 15 publications

References 19 publications

Local News and National Politics

Local News and National Politics

The political power of internet business: A comprehensive dataset of Telecommunications Ownership and Control (TOSCO)

Self-coverage for public interest or self-promotion: How media cross-ownership structures affect news content in South Korea

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