Cognitive constraints in the Market for News Benito Arruada, UPF
February 4, 2010 Slide 2 Nuanced demand for news Information
Rationalistic view: weighing balance of info acquisition to ponder
pros and cons, etc. Entertainment (?): in fact, demand for
information suited to human nature: Gossip-driven: Recurrent themes
of fiction Structure of demand Herding-driven: Confirmation of
prior beliefs Common beliefs, conversion Slide 3 Slide 4 Effects of
media competition (Mullainathan & Shleifer, AER, 05) Media are
able to slant news and strive to confirm beliefs If, within a
society, beliefs are Homogenous biased media with the same bias
Heterogeneous biased media with different biases impartial reader
gets well informed by reading several sources Slide 5 Beliefs in
action Beliefs Big firms are the devil: news about denounces to vs.
acquittals of big firms The sainthood of the UN David better than
Goliath The swine flu case WHO (World Health Organization)
initially treated as part of UN but finally tainted by the touch of
the devil (the pharmaceutical companies) Slide 6 H1N1 Scare A
Pharma Scam? COUNCIL OF EUROPE 26/01/2010Winter session: 25-29
January 2010 WHO challenged at public hearing on the handling of
the Swine Flu pandemic "Are decisions on pandemics taken on the
best scientific evidence only?" was the question asked today at a
public hearing of PACE's Committee on Social, Health and Family
Affairs into the handling of the H1N1 pandemic. The World Health
Organisation's flu chief defended his organisation, saying its
advice was not improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical
industry. Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC) will now prepare a
report on this topic, for possible debate by the plenary Assembly
in July or October 2010. See
http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/NewsManager/EMB_NewsManagerView.asp?ID=5209&L=2
and http://www.who.int/en/, especially
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/coe_hearing/en/index.html
http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/NewsManager/EMB_NewsManagerView.asp?ID=5209&L=2http://www.who.int/en/
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/coe_hearing/en/index.html
Slide 7 The following slides present a different example
illustrative of the importance of understanding the nature of the
demand you are facing, not only in news but also in advertising:
Was not the second campaign (In Spain We Trust) underestimating the
audience, perhaps assuming it was similar to the audience of the
first (PLan) campaign? Slide 8 Slide 9 Slide 10
