The dynamics of the debate about gay rights: evidence from US newspapers

Manning, Alan ORCID: 0000-0002-7884-3580 and Masella, Paolo (2022) The dynamics of the debate about gay rights: evidence from US newspapers. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization. ISSN 8756-6222

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Abstract

Changing attitudes are the result of a battle for hearts and minds in which agents for and against change try to persuade others. We know very little about this process. We develop a methodology for measuring the intensity and the contents of media coverage for and against an idea which we apply to attitudes to gay rights. We uncover several stylized facts: First, the diffusion process of both pro- and anti-gay rights language in the US newspapers follow an S-shaped pattern, characteristic of diffusion processes. Anti-gay rights coverage starts its diffusion process later but then catches up. Second, in the year gay marriages are introduced, we observe a dramatic increase in coverage of both pro- and anti-gay rights language; the increase in the latter is larger. The rise in coverage is still present in the 3 years after the institutional change. Third, there is substantial spatial autocorrelation in media coverage (JEL J15, Z1).

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://academic.oup.com/jleo
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Authors
Divisions:	Economics Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Date Deposited:	11 Jan 2022 11:09
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2023 17:00
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/113394

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