Maria Alexeevna Petrova
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 282
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My dissertation consists of three essays analyzing the factors that influence the political bias of the news media, from a comparative perspective. I focus specifically on the effects of the economic environment and the conditions that facilitate media capture by the special interest groups, political parties, or governments. The mechanisms of influence include investment in media firms, political advertising, paid articles, subsidies, bribes, etc. I argue that countries with high inequality or small advertising markets are especially likely to have their media captured by political interests. In the first chapter, I argue that high income inequality can facilitate media capture by the rich. As a result of capture, the media advocate a low level of taxation and redistribution, which, in turn, affects voters' policy preferences. The influence of the rich on the media is one reason why income inequality leads to political inequality, and why policy outcomes are more responsive to the preferences of the rich than to those of the poor. I present a formal theoretical model of this argument based on the Meltzer-Richard model of the choice of the level of redistribution by the median voter. I empirically test predictions of my model using cross-country evidence. I find that higher income inequality decreases the extent of media freedom in the country, which, in turn, decreases the level of social spending.