Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP18384
Authors: Razi Farukh; Matthias Heinz; Anna Kerkhof; Heiner Schumacher
Abstract: Do news outlets push overly positive or negative attitudes to migration in their coverage, or do they try to maintain a neutral and holistic perspective on the topic? To study media slant in the context of migration, we collect and code migration-related pictures that news outlets publish and – to establish a benchmark – compare them to the pictures that pro- and anti-migration ideological campaigns use in promotion materials. We find that most national news outlets in Germany adopt an attitude to migration that is closer to pro- than to anti-migration campaigns. All news outlets except one tabloid newspaper maintain their attitude to migration even when consumers become more critical of migration over time. Moreover, all news outlets use pictures with very diverse evaluations. Their position on migration largely follows their political orientation. We also use our method to compare the media slant in the context of migration between Germany, Hungary, and the US.
Keywords: migration; media slant; polarization
JEL Codes: D83; L82; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Political orientation of news outlets (D72) | Coverage of migration (F22) |
| Public sentiment (D72) | Coverage of migration (F22) |
| Political orientation of news outlets (D72) | Attitudes towards migration in news media (F22) |
| Migration crisis (F22) | Shift in coverage by Bild (P27) |
| Hungarian media market (L82) | Attitude towards migration (F22) |
| US media market (L82) | Polarization in attitudes towards migration (F22) |