Rational Ignorance and Negative News in the Information Market

Arbeitspapier

While the availability of infirmation has increased rapidly, the public is still considered poorly infirmed. This paper contributes to the emerging field of media economics by studying how the demand side of the media market affects news production and consumption. We show that consumers are likely to remain imperfectly infirmed on most issues and that negative news coverage is likely to dominate positive news stories because of demand side effects.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: LICOS Discussion Paper ; No. 191

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Entertainment; Media ; Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
• Subject: Media ; bias ; rational ignorance ; negative news coverage ; Mediennutzung ; Marktmechanismus ; Bias ; Angebot ; Nachfrage ; Fernsehprogramm ; Medienökonomik

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): McCluskey, Jill ; Swinnen, Johan F. M.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance
• (where): Leuven
• (when): 2007

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/74975
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET