When the Fourth Estate Becomes a Fifth Column: The Effect of Media Freedom and Social Intolerance on Civil Conflict

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dc.contributor.authorHutchison, Marc L.
dc.contributor.authorSchiano, Salvatore
dc.contributor.authorWhitten-Woodring, Jenifer
dc.date.accessioned2016-10-25T21:21:11Z
dc.date.accessioned2020-02-19T21:16:01Z
dc.date.available2016-10-25T21:21:11Z
dc.date.available2020-02-19T21:16:01Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.description.abstractMedia 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.en_US
dc.identifier.citationThe International Journal of Press/Politics 2016, Vol. 21(2) 165– 187en_US
dc.identifier.issn1940-1612 (print)
dc.identifier.issn1940-1620 (online)
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12517/191
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherThe International Journal of Press/Politicsen_US
dc.subjectfreedom of the pressen_US
dc.subjecthuman rightsen_US
dc.subjectsocial toleranceen_US
dc.subjectintoleranceen_US
dc.subjectcivil conflicten_US
dc.subjectdomestic conflicten_US
dc.subjectpolitical conflicten_US
dc.subjectAsiaen_US
dc.subjectcensorshipen_US
dc.titleWhen the Fourth Estate Becomes a Fifth Column: The Effect of Media Freedom and Social Intolerance on Civil Conflicten_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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