Rational Ignorance and Negative News in the Information Market

Jill McCluskey and Johan Swinnen

LICOS Discussion Papers from LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven

Abstract: While the availability of information has increased rapidly, the public is still considered poorly informed. This paper contributes to the emerging field of media economics by studying how the demand side of the media market affects news production and consumption. We show that consumers are likely to remain imperfectly informed on most issues and that negative news coverage is likely to dominate positive news stories because of demand side effects.

Keywords: Media; bias; rational ignorance; negative news coverage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 12 pages
Date: 2007
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-cul
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lic:licosd:19107

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