Bureaucratic Responsiveness to the News Media: Comparing the Influence of The New York Times and Network Television News Coverage on US Foreign Aid Allocations

Abstract

This study compares the influence that The New York Times coverage and network television news coverage have on the bureaucracies responsible for the allocation of U.S. foreign aid. While previous research has demonstrated a clear correlation between variations in coverage, and the allocation of aid, it is not clear exactly which indicator should be used to measure that coverage and there are plausible arguments that either could produce a more substantial and robust correlation with government action. The results presented in this article demonstrate that both news outlets can reasonably be used as indicators of news media salience as an influence on bureaucracies. However, the levels of The New York Times coverage consistently perform slightly better in the statistical analyses, suggesting that scholars with no theoretical or conceptual preference may wish to choose The New York Times as an indicator of salience in the news media.