1st Economics of Media Bias Workshop

The inaugural workshop took place at the Hamburg Media School, Germany. On Day 1, the sessions featured presentations about the influence of international media on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the impact of Chinese microblogs on drug quality; “softness bias” in the news; the implications of time scarcity in the market for news; the evolution of political scandals over the election cycle; and opinion dynamics via search engines. Keynote speaker Andrea Prat from Columbia University discussed the overarching theme of media power.

On Day 2, researchers explored questions related to biases in movie reviews; the impact of quantity restrictions on advertising on commercial media bias; the effects of bias in cable news on political polarization; and the influence of media on respect for property rights. During the workshop, the participants also discussed strategies to set up the workshop as an annual event hosted by varying universities and academic institutions. The resulting funding application was eventually approved by the German Research Foundation, which help to organize further workshops in the future.