Does The Media Matter? A Field Experiment Measuring the Effect of Newspapers on Voting Behavior and Political Opinions

Alan Gerber, Dean Karlan and Daniel Bergan
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Alan Gerber: Yale U

Working Papers from Yale University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper reports the results of a natural field experiment to measure the effect of exposure to newspapers on political behavior and opinion. The Washington DC area is served by two major newspapers, the Washington Times and the Washington Post. We randomly assigned individuals either to receive a free subscription to the Washington Post, to receive a free subscription to the Washington Times, or to a control group. We then conducted a public opinion survey after the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial election. We find that those assigned to the Post treatment group were eight percentage points more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate for governor than those assigned to the control group. We find similar but weaker evidence of shifts in public opinion on specific issues and attitudes.

JEL-codes: C93 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-02
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does the Media Matter? A Field Experiment Measuring the Effect of Newspapers on Voting Behavior and Political Opinions (2009)
Working Paper: Does the media matter? A field experiment measuring the effect of newspapers on voting behavior and political opinions (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:yaleco:12

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