Press Coverage and Political Accountability

Abstract

In this paper we estimate the impact of press coverage on citizen knowledge, politicians' actions, and policy. We find that a poor fit between newspaper markets and political districts reduces press coverage of politics. We use variation in this fit due to redistricting to identify the effects of reduced coverage. Exploring the links in the causal chain of media effects --voter information, politicians' actions and policy --we find statistically significant and substantively important effects. Voters living in areas with less coverage of their U.S. House representative are less likely to recall their representative's name, and less able to describe and rate them. Congressmen who are less covered by the local press work less for their constituencies: they are less likely to stand witness before congressional hearings, to serve on constituency-oriented committees (perhaps), and to vote against the party line. Finally, this congressional behavior affects policy. Federal spending is lower in areas where there is less press coverage of the local members of congress.

The impact of the mass media on obstetricians’ behavior in Norway

“…They are more likely to practice defensive medicine when the likelihood of negative publicity increases. Our results complement recent findings within the field of political economy [1][2][3][4]. These studies indicate that elected representatives are responsive to the needs and the preferences of their constituency when they are closely monitored by the media.…”

“…Snyder and Strömberg found that counties in the USA that were well covered by newspapers during the period 1991-2002 received more federal funding [2]. Similar results have been reported from other countries.…”

“…a Caesarean section. Following Snyder and Strömberg [2] and Bruns and Himmler [3], the key idea is that newspapers will cover events more closely in those areas where newspapers have most of their circulation. Within such areas the likelihood of negative publicity increases.…”

Do politicians shirk when reelection is certain? Evidence from the German parliament

“…Another example is Snyder and Strömberg (2010) investigating how different levels of political competition induced by press coverage affect in versus against party line voting by members of the US Congress. 8 Becker et al (2009) analyze the effect of political competition on politicians' outside earnings, i.e.…”

Politicians under investigation: The news Media's effect on the likelihood of resignation

“…By estimating the impact of news coverage of lifts of immunity on the likelihood of resignation, we show that the media can help holding representatives accountable prior to the regular end of their mandate or function. Because we investigate the behavior of representatives, our study also relates to the literature on the effects of media on policy making (Besley and Burgess, 2002;Strömberg, 2004b;Eisensee and Strömberg, 2007;Snyder and Strömberg, 2010) and political elites (Campante and Hojman, 2013;Clinton and Enamorado, 2014;Arceneaux et al, 2015;Garcia-Jimeno and Yildirim, 2015).…”