The Crumbling Hidden Wall:
towards an Economic Theory of Journalism

Susanne Fengler and Stephan Russ-Mohl

Kyklos, 2008, vol. 61, issue 4, pages 520-542

Abstract: While economic theory has been applied to fields such diverse as religion, arts, law and crime in past years, journalism has until recently remained a blind spot of economic analysis. Media economists may have described media markets, but few economists so far have studied self-interested journalists as actors in information-attention markets. Frequently, it is still assumed that journalists serve the public, strive for objectivity in their news products, and seek to act as a 'fourth estate' in democracy. We consider this a 'nirvana approach' to journalism, and we seek to demonstrate instead that media content is severely influenced by rational journalists' and other communication professionals' self interests. Copyright 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Date: 2008

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6435.2008.00416.x link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:61:y:2008:i:4:p:520-542

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0023-5962

Access Statistics for this article

Kyklos is edited by Rene L. Frey

More articles in Kyklos from Blackwell Publishing
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().