Doctoral candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
My research sits at the intersection of comparative politics, political communication, and political economy.
I study the conditions under which media markets under authoritarian rule provide citizens with critical and accurate coverage of political events and incumbent leaders. In my dissertation research, I explain how the logic of media market competition shapes the choices and available to citizens and authoritarian regimes.
omlang@wisc.edu
110 North Hall
1050 Bascom Mall
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
I study media markets and the supply of propaganda in authoritarian regimes. My dissertation project examines the origins and consequences of competition in the market for television news. The central argument is that media market competition changes the audience for, as well the constraints on, regime propaganda: citizens skeptical of pro-regime messaging can seek out alternative, often apolitical, media; and absent the constraints of a skeptical audience, regimes can broadcast more biased propaganda yet will reach a smaller audience. This trade-off has implications both for the efficacy of propaganda and information control under autocracy, as well as the stability of authoritarian regimes. I evaluate this argument using original data on 25 years of outlet competition in the market for television news across sixty-four autocracies, a content analysis of scraped newscasts from government channels, and cross-national survey data on news consumption.
Do voters reward candidates who share their tribal identity? Does this relationship hold even where tribal identity was repressed for decades? These questions are difficult to answer using observational data because of measurement challenges, selection problems, or both. We address these questions using new evidence from Tunisia, where since independence governments tried to \emph{uproot} tribal identity. To estimate the effect of tribal influence on voting, we match a historical dictionary of Tunisian tribes to surnames from the universe of both registered voters and candidates from Tunisia's recent local elections (2018). We find that lists whose candidates share a tribal identity with voters outperform lists who do not share this identity in elections widely judged to be free and fair. Our findings suggests that despite active repression for decades, tribal identity exerted a measurable effect on local politics during a fleeting period of democratic transition.
About this website: This website is based on Shiro Kuriwaki's website and the Minimal Mistakes github pages template.