Abstract: Do mainstream media outlets actively amplify politicians' social media statements? Does this amplification influence individuals' political opinions? To answer these questions, I first study cable news coverage of Donald J. Trump's tweets using novel high-frequency coverage measures for CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. I show that Trump was able to set the agenda of cable news outlets through Twitter, with cable outlets covering his tweets minutes after these had been posted. I then use a large public opinion survey to investigate the impact of TV coverage of Trump's tweets on public opinion. I find that CNN's broadcasts of Trump's tweets were associated with a decreased approval of Trump by CNN viewers, hours after a tweet was covered. The opposite effect holds for Fox News viewers. These findings shed light on a new channel through which social media impacts individuals' political opinions.
Work in Progress
In short: Past media literature has measured bias on television news only through verbal and image-based measures. Audio measures, while crucial to rate TV coverage - by definition, a three-dimensional object - are not to be found. I leverage on computer vision and computer audition techniques to rate this third dimension of TV coverage, across and within cable outlets.
Status: draft in progress.In short: Past literature on the agenda-setting power of the news media is based mainly on correlational evidence. In this paper, I map within-day content measures for TV news to U.S. congress-members' social media statements, to provide a first causal assessment of the agenda-setting power of traditional mass media over the agenda of politicians.
Status: draft in progress.
Working Papers
with Diogo Leitão, João Pereira dos Santos and José Tavares, 2019, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP13990.
with José Tavares, 2016, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP11654.