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Advertising Spending and Media Bias: Evidence from News Coverage of Car Safety Recalls

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Advertising Spending and Media Bias: Evidence from News Coverage of Car Safety Recalls. / Beattie, Graham; Durante, Ruben; Knight, Brian et al.
In: Management Science, Vol. 67, No. 2, 28.02.2021, p. 698-719.

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Beattie G, Durante R, Knight B, Sen A. Advertising Spending and Media Bias: Evidence from News Coverage of Car Safety Recalls. Management Science. 2021 Feb 28;67(2):698-719. Epub 2020 May 15. doi: 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3567

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Beattie, Graham ; Durante, Ruben ; Knight, Brian et al. / Advertising Spending and Media Bias : Evidence from News Coverage of Car Safety Recalls. In: Management Science. 2021 ; Vol. 67, No. 2. pp. 698-719.

Bibtex

@article{983105ad92d14bcc9bc33207a1dfbcd8,
title = "Advertising Spending and Media Bias: Evidence from News Coverage of Car Safety Recalls",
abstract = "Do mass media bias content in favor of advertisers? If so, what market conditions limit or exacerbate this bias? We examine the relationship between advertising by auto manufacturers in U.S. newspapers and news coverage of car safety recalls between 2000 and 2014. This context allows us to separate the influence of advertisers, who prefer less coverage, from that of readers, who prefer more information about the safety risks associated with the recalls. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find that newspapers provide less coverage of recalls issued by manufacturers that advertised more regularly on their pages over the previous two years. The effect is especially pronounced for more severe recalls, which are more likely to hurt manufacturers{\textquoteright} reputations. Competition for readers from other newspapers mitigates proadvertiser bias, and competition for advertising by online platforms exacerbates it. We also present suggestive evidence that less news coverage of recalls is associated with more fatal car accidents. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.",
keywords = "Management Science and Operations Research, Strategy and Management",
author = "Graham Beattie and Ruben Durante and Brian Knight and Ananya Sen",
year = "2021",
month = feb,
day = "28",
doi = "10.1287/mnsc.2019.3567",
language = "English",
volume = "67",
pages = "698--719",
journal = "Management Science",
issn = "0025-1909",
publisher = "INFORMS Inst.for Operations Res.and the Management Sciences",
number = "2",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Advertising Spending and Media Bias

T2 - Evidence from News Coverage of Car Safety Recalls

AU - Beattie, Graham

AU - Durante, Ruben

AU - Knight, Brian

AU - Sen, Ananya

PY - 2021/2/28

Y1 - 2021/2/28

N2 - Do mass media bias content in favor of advertisers? If so, what market conditions limit or exacerbate this bias? We examine the relationship between advertising by auto manufacturers in U.S. newspapers and news coverage of car safety recalls between 2000 and 2014. This context allows us to separate the influence of advertisers, who prefer less coverage, from that of readers, who prefer more information about the safety risks associated with the recalls. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find that newspapers provide less coverage of recalls issued by manufacturers that advertised more regularly on their pages over the previous two years. The effect is especially pronounced for more severe recalls, which are more likely to hurt manufacturers’ reputations. Competition for readers from other newspapers mitigates proadvertiser bias, and competition for advertising by online platforms exacerbates it. We also present suggestive evidence that less news coverage of recalls is associated with more fatal car accidents. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.

AB - Do mass media bias content in favor of advertisers? If so, what market conditions limit or exacerbate this bias? We examine the relationship between advertising by auto manufacturers in U.S. newspapers and news coverage of car safety recalls between 2000 and 2014. This context allows us to separate the influence of advertisers, who prefer less coverage, from that of readers, who prefer more information about the safety risks associated with the recalls. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find that newspapers provide less coverage of recalls issued by manufacturers that advertised more regularly on their pages over the previous two years. The effect is especially pronounced for more severe recalls, which are more likely to hurt manufacturers’ reputations. Competition for readers from other newspapers mitigates proadvertiser bias, and competition for advertising by online platforms exacerbates it. We also present suggestive evidence that less news coverage of recalls is associated with more fatal car accidents. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.

KW - Management Science and Operations Research

KW - Strategy and Management

U2 - 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3567

DO - 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3567

M3 - Journal article

VL - 67

SP - 698

EP - 719

JO - Management Science

JF - Management Science

SN - 0025-1909

IS - 2

ER -