Competition and uncertainty in a paper's news desk

Ascensión Andina Díaz ()
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Ascensión Andina Díaz: Department of Economic Theory, Universidad de M‡laga
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ascension Andina-Diaz

No 2013-02, Working Papers from Universidad de Málaga, Department of Economic Theory, Málaga Economic Theory Research Center

Abstract: We propose a model in which different types of journalists have superior information to a newspaper's editor. Journalists compete for having their report published, but when writing their reports, they are uncertain about the preferences of the editor. We analyze the effects of competition and uncertainty on the incentives of the journalists to write informative reports. We obtain that there is not a unique prediction as to the effects of competition, but the correct answer depends on how much uncertainty there is. Thus, if the editor is perceived to be honest, we show there is an equilibrium in which all the journalists write informative reports, provided that a certain level of competition is met. In contrast, if the editor is perceived to be biased, partial revelation of information exists, even in the absence of competition. Last, high levels of uncertainty inevitably results in uninformative reporting.

Keywords: Information transmission; media bias; competing journalists; uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2013-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-cta and nep-mic
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https://theeconomics.uma.es/malagawpseries/Papers/METCwp2013-2.pdf First version, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Competition and uncertainty in a paper’s news desk (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mal:wpaper:2013-2

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