Does the 4th estate deliver? Towards a more direct measure of political media bias

Ralf Dewenter, Uwe Dulleck and Tobias Thomas

No 235, DICE Discussion Papers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)

Abstract: This contribution introduces a new direct measure of political media bias by analyzing articles and newscasts with respect to the tonality on political parties and politicians. On this basis we develop an index sorting the media in the political left to right spectrum. We apply the index to opinion-leading media in Germany, analysing 7,203,351 reports on political parties and politicians in 35 media outlets from 1988 to 2012. With this approach, in contrast to other indexes, we are able to achieve a more direct and reliable measure of media bias. In addition, we apply the index to study whether the media fulfil their role as the fourth estate, i.e. provide another level of control for government, or whether there is evidence of government capture.

Keywords: media bias; governmental capture; index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C43 D72 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Does the 4th Estate Deliver? Towards a More Direct Measure of Political Media Bias (2016)
Working Paper: Does the 4th estate deliver? Towards more direct measure of political media bias (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:dicedp:235

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