Can Government-Controlled Media Cause Social Change? Television and Fertility in India *

Abstract Does exposure to government-controlled media shape social attitudes and behaviors? Governments routinely enlist public broadcasting to advance progressive social change. However, the efficacy of so-called "developmental communications" is unclear. Modernization theorists contend that the media serve as an important instrument of persuasion in poor countries-especially among certain population groups. Yet, where institutionalization is weak, government-controlled outlets are often dominated by ruling-party propaganda, which may induce distrust in the media and its messaging campaigns. To adjudicate which of these propositions holds sway, we investigate television's impact on fertility preferences and behaviors in India. Exploiting unique data, as well as plausibly exogenous variation in TV ownership due to electromagnetic wave refraction, we show that exposure to India's monopolistic state broadcaster, Doordarshan, caused women to desire fewer children-especially fewer girls-while increasing family planning discussions and contraceptive use. The results demonstrate that even biased state media can engender far-reaching societal transformation. * We than

Collective victimhood and conflict-related attitudes, emotions, and cognitive perspectives: A meta-analysis

This study presents the first pre-registered meta-analysis of the impact of collective victimhood on conflict-related outcomes. Examining 1514 estimates from 139 studies, we assess the impact of victimhood on four conflict-related attitudes (hawkishness, attitudes towards current or former adversaries (reconciliation), attitudes towards groups with which one is not in direct conflict (outgroup exclusion), and in-group attachment) and on conflict-related emotions and cognitive perspectives. We find that collective victimhood is associated with greater conflict-enhancing attitudes, distancing emotions and distancing perspectives, though "inclusive" victimhood generally has opposing effects. These results are consistent across a wide range of geographic contexts, types of victimhood experiences, and identities. Methodologically, we identify consistent differences in the effect sizes found by observational and experimental studies and address the potential presence of publication bias in this field