Monday, November 22, 2004
Economic theory explaining pack journalism
I have written a paper (unpublished) on game theory and pack journalism (together with my advisor Mats Sjölin).
In the paper, we argue that we can explain the interactions between media pack hunts and the way they interact with public officials whenever there is an emerging crisis. By using the theoretical foundations of economics, it is possible to analyze the development of a media event in terms of a variety of game settings. (I have continued this line of research and I am right now writing on a paper about Arrow’s impossibility theorem and the general agenda-setting functions in political campaigns.)
Nobody that I have talked to, among public choice scholars, has said that PC has been implemented like this before. However, I recently found that Shanto Iyengar and Stephen Ansolabehere are implying that this may indeed be a very fruitful way of analyzing politics - they do so in the afterword to their book Going Negative. I strongly recommend it.
More on game theory and political communication:
Going through the basics… Why game theory? There are a number of different ways to deal with economics and political communication. Inis often possible to translate ordinary game theory papers on economic issues into a media context - see the Public Choice Society's conference papers. For those who need to brush up on their game theory mathematics, I recommend this page.
I also recommend the following Media link about the empirical field of study.
In the paper, we argue that we can explain the interactions between media pack hunts and the way they interact with public officials whenever there is an emerging crisis. By using the theoretical foundations of economics, it is possible to analyze the development of a media event in terms of a variety of game settings. (I have continued this line of research and I am right now writing on a paper about Arrow’s impossibility theorem and the general agenda-setting functions in political campaigns.)
Nobody that I have talked to, among public choice scholars, has said that PC has been implemented like this before. However, I recently found that Shanto Iyengar and Stephen Ansolabehere are implying that this may indeed be a very fruitful way of analyzing politics - they do so in the afterword to their book Going Negative. I strongly recommend it.
More on game theory and political communication:
Going through the basics… Why game theory? There are a number of different ways to deal with economics and political communication. Inis often possible to translate ordinary game theory papers on economic issues into a media context - see the Public Choice Society's conference papers. For those who need to brush up on their game theory mathematics, I recommend this page.
I also recommend the following Media link about the empirical field of study.
