Learning about Bias: An Experiment on News Consumption in Russia

• In Event: Propaganda, Media Bias, and Public Opinion in China and Russia

Abstract

Most media that people consume exhibit certain political biases or slants. However, many citizens either do not understand or underestimate the slant of the media they consume. This study proposes a new experimental design to investigate whether making media slant more evident affects how citizens perceive news coverage, what news sources they consume, and how they form their political beliefs. Our experimental intervention fielded online among Russian citizens exposes respondents to news coverage by two major state and independent television channels and, at the same time, makes respondents more attentive to the slant of news reporting. Our panel design allows us to examine the subsequent impact of the intervention on respondents' perceptions of media, willingness to consume particular media outlets, political knowledge, and support for the government and its policies. We find that respondents who were exposed to news coverage in this way adjusted their beliefs about the slant and bias of state and independent media, reported greater awareness of news stories published by state and independent media, and revised their political views, expressing more concern about the government and its policies. In addition, respondents who were exposed to the coverage from an independent television station adjusted their news consumption, more often choosing to consume news from this independent outlet.

Authors

• Anton Shirikov, University of Kansas

• Georgiy Syunyaev, Vanderbilt University