Descrizione del progetto
L’influenza dei media sulle elezioni
In una democrazia, i cittadini esercitano il loro potere votando e possono indirizzare la politica attraverso i loro rappresentanti eletti nel governo. Si tratta di un processo direttamente legato alle preferenze e alle convinzioni degli elettori, che sono ampiamente plasmate dai media. Esiste una preoccupazione sempre più forte in relazione alla capacità di manipolazione dei mass media e l’impatto della parzialità dei mezzi di comunicazione di massa sulle scelte di voto è stato largamente dimostrato. Il progetto PEMB, finanziato dall’UE, utilizzerà nuove tecniche sperimentali e di teoria dei giochi per determinare l’influenza dei media sugli esiti elettorali e politici. Attraverso indagini teoriche ed empiriche, valuterà inoltre l’efficacia delle misure che disciplinano attualmente l’operato dei media. I risultati aiuteranno i responsabili delle politiche e i professionisti dei mezzi di comunicazione ad affrontare le problematiche legate alla falsificazione delle informazioni.
Obiettivo
The well-functioning of modern democracies crucially hinges on the information that voters receive, and mass media are the primary source of policy-relevant information. Yet, substantial evidence indicates that media bias has an impact on voters’ decision, and there is a widespread concern among governments regarding the implications of such information distortions on political outcomes. To date, it is not clear what the effects of media bias are and how regulators should intervene in order to mitigate the problem. This project will employ both novel game-theoretical and experimental techniques to understand the impact of strategically biased news. This innovative modelling strategy will allow me to address two key and timely questions: how media bias affects electoral and political outcomes? How should news markets be regulated? The main objective is to understand political distortions as a function of the news providers' costs of information misreporting. Regulators often intervene by affecting such misreporting costs, e.g. via direct fines or the introduction of media watchdogs. However, this link is highly understudied, and until now there is no formal model that can assess what are the implications of interventions directed toward regulating misreporting costs. The project will focus on understanding the distortions of media bias on three crucial dimensions: (i) the choice of voters, (ii) the process of policy-making, and (iii) competition. The nature of the project is intrinsically multidisciplinary as it involves both theoretical and empirical investigations which are highly relevant and pertinent to studies in economics, political science, and media studies. Results have the potential to improve the efficacy of regulations of the media sector, mitigate the informational distortions in electoral and political outcomes, and make room for further research in the political economy of media bias and its market determinants.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinatore
38122 Trento
Italia