Do Newspapers Serve the State? Incumbent Party Influence on the Us Press, 1869-1928
40 Pages Posted: 16 Jun 2012 Last revised: 18 Feb 2022
There are 2 versions of this paper
Do Newspapers Serve the State? Incumbent Party Influence on the US Press, 1869-1928
Date Written: June 2012
Abstract
Using data from 1869 to 1928, we estimate the effect of party control of state governments on the entry, exit, circulation, prices, number of pages, and content of Republican and Democratic daily newspapers. We exploit changes over time in party control of the governorship and state legislatures in a differences-in-differences design. We exploit close gubernatorial elections and state legislatures with small majorities in a parallel regression-discontinuity design. Neither method reveals evidence that the party in power affects the partisan composition of the press. Our confidence intervals rule out modest effects, and we find little evidence of incumbent party influence even in times and places with high political stakes or low commercial stakes. The one exception is the Reconstruction South, an episode that we discuss in detail.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you want regular updates from SSRN on Twitter?
Recommended Papers
-
By Simeon Djankov, Caralee Mcliesh, ...
-
By Simeon Djankov, Caralee Mcliesh, ...
-
The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India
By Timothy J. Besley and Robin Burgess
-
Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government Accountability
By Timothy J. Besley and Andrea Prat
-
Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government Accountability
By Timothy J. Besley and Andrea Prat
-
By Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro
-
By Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro