Francesco Sobbrio

The Political Economy of News Media: Theory, Evidence and Open Issues

This chapter provides a survey of the literature analyzing the political economy of news media. The survey discusses the effects of news media on political and public policy outcomes and the theory and evidence analyzing the distortions present in the market for news. I conclude by discussing some open research questions regarding the scope for public intervention in the market for news an issues relative to the internet and new media.

War of the Waves: Radio and Resistance During World War II

What is the role of the media in coordinating and mobilizing insurgency against a foreign military occupation? We analyze this question in the context of the Nazi- fascist occupation of Italy during WWII. We study the effect of BBC radio counter- propaganda (Radio Londra) on the intensity of internal resistance to the Nazi-fascist regime. Using variation in monthly sunspot activities affecting the sky-wave propagation of BBC broadcasting towards Italy, we show that BBC radio had a strong impact on political violence. We provide further evidence to prove that BBC radio played an important role in coordinating resistance activities, but had no lasting role in motivating the population against the fascist regime.

Opinion Dynamics via Search Engines (and Other Algorithmic Gatekeepers)

Ranking algorithms are the information gatekeepers of the Internet era. We develop a stylized model to study the effects of ranking algorithms on opinion dynamics. We consider a search engine that uses an algorithm based on popularity and on personalization. We find that popularity-based rankings generate an advantage of the fewer effect: fewer websites reporting a given signal attract relatively more traffic overall. This highlights a novel, ranking-driven channel that explains the diffusion of misinformation, as websites reporting incorrect information may attract an amplified amount of traffic precisely because they are few. Furthermore, when individuals provide sufficiently positive feedback to the ranking algorithm, popularity-based rankings tend to aggregate information while personalization acts in the opposite direction.