Market Forces and News Media in Muslim Countries

A growing body of evidence highlights the media’s impact on public policies relevant to economic development. Governments are more likely to channel resources to those who have access to information through the press (Besley and Burgess 2002; Stromberg 2004). U.S. aid in response to natural disasters overseas is strongly in‡uenced by press coverage of disasters in the U.S. (Stromberg and Eisensee forthcoming). Politicians appear to work harder in support of their constituents interests when their activities are scrutinized (Snyder and Stromberg 2007). And the press may play an important role in disciplining corruption (Reinikka and Svensson 2005). Evidence that media content a¤ects policy raises the question of what forces shape media content. A central issue is whether private ownership and competition in markets for news will foster accuracy, or merely create a tendency for news outlets to re‡ect the pre-existing beliefs of their respective audiences. Recent events have made this tension salient in the context of Muslim countries, especially in the Middle East. State control of media in these countries has eroded rapidly, through the rise of trans-national satellite television networks such as Al Jazeera, the growth of the Internet, and