Does Media Reporting on Corruption Influence Beliefs About Fairness?

Abstract: How do people interpret government corruption reported in the media? We use corruption news released by the anti-corruption campaign in China that began in 2013 to causally examine its impact on people’s self-reported views toward fairness in society. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that corruption news deteriorates belief in fairness. The results are robust after controlling for regional cultural differences and local corruption severity. The possibility of reversal causality is addressed by controlling for prior corruption awareness. To examine the channel through which corruption news affects beliefs, we use novel Baidu Searching Index data for the term “anti-corruption (fanfu)” as a proxy for corruption awareness. Our analysis shows that corruption exposure increased corruption awareness and that an increase in awareness is associated with greater deterioration in belief in fairness. This indicates that the anti-corruption campaign increased people’s awareness about the severity of corruption and suggests that the campaign may have had unintended consequences for social stability.