When the Fourth Estate Becomes a Fifth Column: The Effect of Media Freedom and Social Intolerance on Civil Conflict
Date
2016
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
The International Journal of Press/Politics
Abstract
Media freedom is typically viewed as crucial to democracy and development. The
idea is that independent news media will facilitate free and fair elections and shine a
spotlight on corruption—thereby serving as a fourth estate. Yet political leaders often
justify restricting media freedom on the grounds that irresponsible news coverage will
incite political violence—potentially undermining government and in effect acting as a
fifth column. So is media freedom a force for democracy or a source of civil conflict?
We hypothesize that the effect of media freedom on civil conflict is conditioned by a
country’s level of intolerance. Specifically, we predict when social intolerance is low,
media freedom will discourage domestic conflict because the tone of the news coverage
will reflect the level of tolerance and ameliorate any inflammatory coverage. In contrast,
we predict that high levels of social intolerance will fuel and be fueled by inflammatory
news coverage if the media are free, thereby promoting civil conflict. We test our
hypotheses across countries and over time drawing from World Values and European
Values Surveys and the Global Media Freedom Dataset and find that the combination
of media freedom and high social intolerance is associated with increased civil conflict.
Description
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Keywords
freedom of the press, human rights, social tolerance, intolerance, civil conflict, domestic conflict, political conflict, Asia, censorship
Citation
The International Journal of Press/Politics 2016, Vol. 21(2) 165– 187