Media Freedom, Political Knowledge, and Participation
Journal of Economic Perspectives, Forthcoming
Posted: 2 Apr 2008
Abstract
Existing research establishes a strong association between patterns of media ownership and economic development on the one hand, and the importance of media-provided information in holding politicians accountable on the other. However, a 'black box' remains surrounding the precise nature of the channel that links media, information, and development. This paper provides evidence for this channel by examining the relationship between media freedom and citizens' political knowledge. It finds a large, positive, and highly significant association between media freedom, political knowledge, political participation, and voter turnout. In countries where government has greater control over the media, citizens are more politically ignorant and apathetic. In countries where government controls the media less, citizens are more politically knowledgeable and active. These results are robust to sample, specification, and alternative measures of media freedom.
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