The Effect of the Internet on Newspaper Readability

Abdallah Salami () and Robert Seamans
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Abdallah Salami: NYU Stern School of Business, 44 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10012 USA

No 14-13, Working Papers from NET Institute

Abstract: How has the Internet affected newspaper content? We build a dataset that matches newspaper readability measures to Internet penetration at the county-year level from 2000 – 2008. We document a positive relationship between Internet penetration and newspaper readability. This result appears remarkably robust. The relationship is evident in non-parametric graphs of the raw data, annual cross-sections and panel data models. Our cross section results rely on an instrumental variables approach that uses lightning strikes to instrument for Internet penetration. Thus, contrary to a commonly held belief that the Internet is “dumbing down” content, we find evidence supporting the opposite hypothesis: newspaper content appears to be getting more sophisticated in response to increased Internet penetration.

Keywords: Internet; newspapers; quality; readability; broadband access (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L15 L25 L86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-ict
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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