Skoraj nobelova o medijih in internetu

Letošnjo Clarkovo medaljo (za Nobelovo najbolj prestižna) je dobil ekonomist Matthew Gentzkow. Študira, kako ekonomske zakonitosti in internet spreminjajo medije. Dve zanimivosti iz člankov:

Democracy is most effective when citizens have accurate beliefs. To form such beliefs, individuals must encounter information that will sometimes contradict their preexisting views. Guaranteeing exposure to information from diverse viewpoints has been a central goal of media policy in the United States and around the world.

Če je to politika medijsko pluralnih ZDA, bi se morali tega toliko bolj držati v medijsko skoraj enoumni Sloveniji. To bi morala zagotavljati državna medijska politika na splošno (recimo medijski razpisi) in javni RTV servis posebej.

In še pojasnilo, zakaj pri nas tako zelo verjamejo Mladini, ne pa tako zelo tudi Reporterju in Demokraciji:

A Bayesian consumer who is uncertain about the quality of an infor-mation source will infer that the source is of higher quality when its reports conform to the consumer’s prior expectations. We use this fact to build a model of media bias in which firms slant their reports toward the prior beliefs of their customers in order to build a reputation for quality. Bias emerges in our model even though it can make all market participants worse off. The model predicts that bias will be less severe when consumers receive independent evidence on the true state of the world and that competition between independently owned news outlets can reduce bias. We present a variety of empirical evidence consistent with these predictions.

Po domače povedano: ljudje bolj verjamejo medijem, ki pritrjujejo tistemu, kar verjamejo že sicer. In kupujejo medije, ki jim verjamejo. Zato se medijem splača nagibati ali v levo ali v desno. Pristranskost pa je manjša, če je bralec izpostavljen tudi nepopačeni informaciji ali informaciji z druge strani.

To se bralcem Mladine praktično ne zgodi. Bralcem Reporterja in Demokracije pa vedno, ko prižgejo radio, televizijo, ali ko kupijo časopis.

Ponovimo:

Zagotavljanje izpostavljenosti informacijam iz različnih vidikov je glavni cilj medijske politike v ZDA in po svetu.