Breaking News: A Model of Media Competition, Fact-Checking, and Political Accountability

We study the impact of media competition on the incentives of media outlets to fact-check information before publishing as well as on consumer demand for fact-based news. On the supply side, when competition increases, media outlets may forgo fact-checking to make sure they are the first to report a story. Consequently, excessive media competition can compromise the quality of reporting. Conversely, on the demand side, increasing competition encourages readers’ selectiveness, thus giving media outlets an incentive to fact-check. We use our model to assess the impact of the internet on news quality, demonstrating, for instance, that a faster news cycle can foster increased fact-checking.