Media Ownership and News Coverage of International Conflict. (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baum, Matthew A.; Zhukov, Yuri M.
• Is Part Of: Political communication. Volume 36:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 36
• Page End: 63
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Communication -- Political aspects -- Periodicals; Communication in politics -- Periodicals; 306.205
• DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2018.1483606
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1058-4609

Abstract

Abstract : How do differences in ownership of media enterprises shape news coverage of international conflict? We examine this relationship using a new dataset of 591, 532 articles on US-led multinational military operations in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, published by 2, 505 newspapers in 116 countries. We find that ownership chains exert a homogenizing effect on the content of newspapers' coverage of foreign policy, resulting in coverage across co-owned papers that is more similar in scope (what they cover), focus (how much "hard" relative to "soft" news they offer), and diversity (the breadth of topics they include in their coverage of a given issue) relative to coverage across papers that are not co-owned. However, we also find that competitive market pressures can mitigate these homogenizing effects, and incentivize co-owned outlets to differentiate their coverage. Restrictions on press freedom have the opposite impact, increasing the similarity of coverage within ownership chains.