Media Capture Through Favor Exchange

We use data from Hungary to establish two results about the relationship between government and media. (i) document large advertising favors connected media, corruption coverage media government. Our empirical strategy exploits sharp reallocations around changes in ownership other events rule out market?based explanations. (ii) Under assumptions of a structural model, we distinguish owner ideology favor exchange as mechanism driving favors. estimate our model exploiting within?owner for identification find that both mechanisms are important. These imply targeted can meaningfully influence content. Counterfactuals show also ideology, by making more profitable pro?government investors. consistent with qualitative evidence many democracies suggest affects content worldwide.