National or Local? The Demand for News in Italy during COVID-19

Stefano Castriota (), Marco Delmastro and Mirco Tonin
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Stefano Castriota: Department of Political Sciences, University of Pisa

No BEMPS74, BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series from Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen

Abstract: Looking at TV news viewership in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic using actual consumption data, we investigate whether demand for national and local news depends on national or local epidemiological developments, as measured by the number of new positives or the number of currently positives in any given day. Exploiting the fact that the seriousness of the pandemic displays a great deal of variation among the different regions, we find that at the regional level demand for both national news and, more surprisingly, local news responds to the national epidemiological developments rather than to the local ones. This has implications for the incentives faced by local politicians to take preventive action.

Keywords: News; Local news; TV; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: [26 pages]
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-ore
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: National or Local? The Demand for News in Italy during Covid-19 (2020)
Working Paper: National or Local? The Demand for News in Italy during COVID-19 (2020)
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