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Advertising and Political Bias in the Media: The Market for Criticism of the Market Economy
Author(s) -
Sutter Daniel
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
american journal of economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1536-7150
pISSN - 0002-9246
DOI - 10.1111/1536-7150.00187
Subject(s) - scrutiny , media bias , argument (complex analysis) , criticism , politics , incentive , advertising account executive , advertising , native advertising , business , economics , marketing , public relations , market economy , political science , online advertising , law , biochemistry , chemistry , the internet , world wide web , computer science
Many observers of the media argue that advertiser support of the news insulates business from critical scrutiny. News organizations know better than to bite the hand that feeds them. I examine several weaknesses in this corporate advertising bias argument. Most significantly, a favorable political climate for business is a public good, so individual businesses have an incentive to support anti–business messages that generate an audience. Transmission of messages that fail to generate sufficient demand is inefficient. In short, advertising does not create a significant political bias.