Man Bites Dog? Editorial Choices and Biases in the Reporting of Weather Events

Nicola Mastrorocco, Arianna Ornaghi, Matteo Pograxha and Stephane Wolton

No 18383, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Every day, editors of media outlets decide what is news. In this paper, we unpack the process of news production by looking at US local TV newscasts' coverage of weather events, which we define as deviations in temperatures from the historical mean. We show that large deviations receive substantially more coverage than typical temperatures, and the greater the deviation, the higher the coverage. We document a clear publication bias in the coverage of these events. In summer, the increase in coverage of deviations above (below) the historical mean is more pronounced in TV stations operating in Democratic-leaning (Republican-leaning) media markets. We further study how much emphasis weather news receives, whether stations engage in presentation bias, and offer empirical and theoretical evidence that demand rather than supply forces drive coverage.

JEL-codes: D80 L82 P00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-08
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