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Reinforcement vs. change: The political influence of the media

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  • Ascensión Andina-Díaz

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze competition between two ideological media outlets that want to influence their viewers so as to boot the number of votes for their preferred political party. We consider two ways of influencing viewers, which correspond to two prominent theories borrowed from the literature on Sociology: the “Reinforcement Approach” and the “Attitudinal Orientations Approach”. Our findings show that the aim of influencing viewers generally pushes media outlets to differentiate their opinions, and that the extend of this differentiation deeply depends on the viewers’ behavior. More precisely, we observe that if the viewers channel hop, media outlets end up differentiating their opinions more than if the viewers receive all their information from just one media. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

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  • Ascensión Andina-Díaz, 2007. "Reinforcement vs. change: The political influence of the media," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 65-81, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:131:y:2007:i:1:p:65-81
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-006-9105-1
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    2. Fernanda Leite Lopez Leon, 2016. "Endorse or Not to Endorse: Understanding the Determinants of Newspapers’ Likelihood of Making Political Recommendations," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 63(4), pages 357-376, September.

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