Investigative journalism and media capture in the digital age

Jay Pil Choi and Sangwoo Yang

Information Economics and Policy, 2021, vol. 57, issue C

Abstract: This paper develops a model of investigative journalism and media capture in the market for news with the depreciation of the value of news over time and a limited exclusive supply period of original news due to copying by other media outlets. We make distinctions between traditional media outlets that engage in investigative journalism and fringe digital media that mainly copy and spread original news created elsewhere. We show that the quantity and quality of news with investigative journalism decrease and media capture is more likely as digital technologies induce a lower fixed cost of entry for the fringe firms and a shorter exclusive supply period of news. These results may explain why there is scant evidence for the conventional view that more media outlets lead to higher quality news and less political capture, despite proliferation of news and information outlets in the digital age.

JEL-codes: D72 D73 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:57:y:2021:i:c:s0167624521000305

DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2021.100942

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