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Measuring partisan media bias in US Newscasts from 2001-2012

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Listed:
  • Bernhardt, Lea

    (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg)

  • Dewenter, Ralf

    (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg)

  • Thomas, Tobias

    (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Central European University (CEU), Hungary)

Abstract

This paper investigates the positioning in political news coverage of the big four US newscasts ABC News, CBS News, FOX News and NBC News and how they changed their positions when president Barack Obama took over from George W. Bush. Our empirical analysis is based on the tonality of their political coverage using more than 815,000 news items on Democrats and Republicans from 2001 through 2012. Using the Political Coverage Index (PCI), we find evidence for partisan and biased news coverage across all of the newscasts, with a general tendency of ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News to report slightly more critical on the Republicans, and FOX News with the clear tendency to cover the Democrats more critical. Moreover, and even more interesting, two of the newscasts, namely CBS News and NBC News, changed their political coverage such that it became more conservative when Democrat Barack Obama became president. This effect becomes even more pronounced when observations from election campaign periods are neglected. We interpret these results as some evidence for an anti-government bias of at least part of the newscasts observed. In contrast, FOX News remains Democrat-critical independent of who runs office and can be seen as partisan biased from this perspective. The results are confirmed when we control for differences in reporting rates between the parties and the administrations using interaction terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernhardt, Lea & Dewenter, Ralf & Thomas, Tobias, 2020. "Measuring partisan media bias in US Newscasts from 2001-2012," Working Paper 183/2020, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, revised 15 Nov 2022.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:vhsuwp:2020_183
    Note: This is a revised version of WP Nr. 183 titled "Watchdog or Loyal Servant? Political Media Bias in US Newscasts"
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political Coverage Index; government bias; tonality; media capture; US newscasts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

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