9 February: Federico Innocenti (QSMS Seminar)

(QSMS Seminar)

Presenting “Can Media Pluralism Be Harmful to News Quality?” at 16:00-17:30 online Click here to join the meeting

On 9 February 2022, we have Federico Innocenti of University of Mannheim visiting us. He is going to give a seminar on “Can Media Pluralism Be Harmful to News Quality?” at 16:00 online Click here to join the meeting. Please help the organisers by registering in advance at egervari.zsuzsanna@gtk.bme.hu Registration is free. Event can only be attended with vaccination card.

Abstract: I study a Bayesian persuasion model that connects two stylized facts characterizing the Internet: a great diversity of news sources and the proliferation of disinformation. I show that competition between news sources with opposite biases reduces information quality when news consumers have limited attention because of the endogenous formation of echo chambers. According to the standard narrative, echo chambers arise because news consumers exhibit confirmation bias. I show that even unbiased and rational news consumers devote their limited attention to like-minded news sources in equilibrium. Confirmation bias thus arises endogenously because news sources have no incentive to provide valuable information.